Old World Juniper
by XThesecondkiraX
Summary: Juniper was many things in her past life, Socialite, Cover girl, Wife, and a Mother. Dissociative amnesia Is what Amari calls it, Juniper Just wants to find her son. When dreams point her in the direction of her first child, is it really Shaun? Who's Bloody Mary? "Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again."
1. Never Say Never

Signing up for entrance to vault 111 was the best and worst decision of Juniper's life.  
Her day started semi normally getting ready for her husband's speech at the veterans center. Alfonso, or Al for short had just returned a few months earlier from the war. She smoothed her ginger hair back behind her ears and put the rest up in a semi formally made bun. While she was lining her bright steel eyes with eyeliner Al snuck up behind her and watched with awe.  
" You look stunning" he whispered behind her startling her enough that a strand to fell out of place. She looked at where he was in the mirror and smiled,  
" I try".  
Chucking he scooted her from the mirror,  
" You look fine, besides Codsworth made coffee".  
Juniper was a little apprehensive about having a robot in the house especially with their baby Shaun still so tiny. Cringing juniper made her way out to the kitchen and gratefully accepted the mug he made for her. While Codsworth made his way to change Shaun, she eyed the robot from behind.  
"I know you had doubts about him, but I'm happy that we have Codsworth" Al chimed in while reading the paper.  
"I just wish he wasn't a literal fire hazard that floated above our carpet". She said scowling.  
A brisk pair of knocks made both both Al and Juniper look at the door.  
" He's been trying to get ahold of you for days, you should talk to him".  
Juniper hated making small talk, especially when it came to people she was unsure of. The only reason Al had convinced her to go out to begin with was the fact that he kept making subtle advances. After muddling through the conversation, with the highlight being " _An apocalypse?, hell sign me up!"_ Juniper quickly shut the door only to see Al had moved to the couch. Looking in her direction he smirked  
" I liked the apocalypse part".  
Rolling her eyes juniper walked back to the island of their kitchen,  
" what else was I going to say, If their was some bomb there's no way we'd even know in time to get to the vault."  
Codsworth floated over to juniper looking troubled  
"I'm afraid Shaun even after being changed still appears to be troubled, he needs the maternal affection you speak so highly of mum".  
Juniper tried not to smile, but the thought of her baby already needing her so much made her happy. After walking into the nursery she brushed his cheek with her thumb, he cooed back at her.  
" Hey try out the mobile, I just fixed it yesterday"  
Al walked through the doorway looking excited. Twisting the mobile the opposite direction, It started to spin. Shaun look up happily and formed a toothless smile. Al smiled at Juniper and started to ask about going to the part later, when a nervous Codsworth interrupted.  
"Mum you should really come in here!"  
Sighing Juniper slouched a little and made her way into the living room. The usual morning anchor was hunched over his desk looking concerned,  
" We have confirmed reports of nuclear detonation in Pennsylvania and Washington D.C, oh my god."  
Then the tv showed a grim please stand by picture. Al was already holding Shaun but, with his other hand he grabbed my shoulder hard  
" We need to leave now."  
Blinking through tear Juniper followed Al through the door, then realized something horrifying. She looked back through the doorway and looked at Codsworth. _There's room for your family but not the robot of course._ "Codsworth honey, please take care of yourself" Codsworth focused his eyes and looked at Juniper " Oh mum, you as well, take care of them".  
All the guilt for treating Codsworth so coldly started to bubble up, Juniper smiled through her tears and started to catch up to Al.  
It was chaos through the streets, people trying to drive around the military tank positioned in the middle of their block. Couples arguing over what to bring with them into the vault. The worst part was walking by the vault representative watching him get declined access into the vault. His eyes met Junipers and he looked away scornfully as they pushed past the rest of the people waiting to get in. Once they were checked off the list, they were pushed to one military grunt to another  
" What about the rest of those people" Al said angrily at one of the military personnel.  
He diverted his eye contact and only could manage  
"we're doing the best that we can sir".  
After making it all the way to the platform, Al faced Juniper  
" I love you".  
His face looked like he was giving it everything he had in him to be strong for her and their child.  
" I love you too"

Was all Juniper could say before the sky erupted with a blinding fiery light.  
GET THAT PLATFORM LOWERED  
Juniper watched a huge cloud of smoke and debris rush towards the hill side that the vault was in. The people around her panicked and some of them shielded other family members. With a rumble the platform began to lower, slowly at first. Juniper didn't notice until that Al had tried to cover Shaun between the two of them while the platform was lowering. After the platform started to move more quickly, Al looked at Juniper. Looking up Juniper watched the Blue October sky become a dark brown smoke filled one as the platform made it's descent. Slowly that sky too disappeared as a large metal door sealed at the top. For almost a minute there as just darkness and the hum of the platform making it's way down the track. No one spoke or moved, everyone was in shock, but they all feared what was next. Juniper saw blinding lights as the platform found it's destination. The vault overseerer introduced himself and told everyone to move along to get into the vault. One of juniper's neighbors started to realize what had happened and she made it over to the wall before she had a full breakdown.  
" Everyone else is gone, does that mean our son?"  
Her husband took her hand and just held her while she then recognized her, their son just had gone off to college in Washington D.C.  
 _Confirmed nuclear detonations in Pennsylvania and Washington D.C._  
Al kept walking with Shaun, and Juniper just followed behind him slowly taking in their new metal surroundings. In front of them was a huge metal sign that said  
 _Vault 111, Welcome Home._  
After tucking a vault 111 jumpsuit under her arm she looked around more. People in white coats were eyeing up everyone walking through. Their attention turned quickly to Shaun, which unsettled Juniper. Walking up to Al, she knew he felt unsettled as well.  
"There's no way I'm leaving Shaun alone in this place" Juniper whispered to Al.  
"Shaun has the both of us, nothing bad will happen to him while we're around." He said firmly placing an arm around her shoulder they made their way to the doctor who showed them through the hallway. More of their neighbors were in the hallway, some of them were arguing with vault personnel while others seemed like they were still in shock.  
Juniper listened to the doctor but, not fully. Slowly she realized everything she had ever known was gone. Al felt her body start to tense up, quietly he whispered "You need to stay calm, If they see you start to have an attack they might take you somewhere, I can't protect you from them while I protect Shaun from them too." Exhaling slowly Juniper straightened herself and looked up. The doctor had stopped and was eyeing her suspiciously.  
" Sorry, I just had to catch my breathe, that elevator ride was a little too fast for me."  
The doctor instantly smiled and continued the tour. Both Al and Juniper exchanged glances and kept following him. It wasn't that Al and Juniper weren't grateful, it's just that something seemed off here. There was no actual living areas so far, and they had passed by a window which had strange tall individual machines next to each other. Juniper went to ask but was told to keep moving along. The deeper they went into the vault the colder it got. The last room they came to was filled with these pod looking machines and some people already had their vault suite on and had gotten in.  
" Alright these last two are yours, just put your vault suit on and hop right in!"  
Shaun started to cry the moment Juniper walked towards her pod,  
" Hey sweetie I'll be right over there, don't you worry." She kissed Shaun's temple and looked up at Al. He nodded towards her and Juniper smiled.  
" There she is, see she's not going far" Al comforted Shaun and he finally seemed to relax.  
Juniper looked up at Al one more time and kissed him.  
"I love you, and not matter what happ-" Al interrupted and kissed her again slowly and more passionately. " Nothing will keep me apart from you two". He wiped a tear from Juniper's eye as she walked over to her pod. She slid on her vault suit, and grabbed one of the handles and got into her pod. She looked over and saw Al had his suite on and was holding Shaun.  
The doctor kept talking while the door was shutting but Juniper had stopped listening She was burning the picture of Alfonso and Shaun into her mind.  
" Our life, is never going to be the same." she said so quietly no one heard.  
Occupant secure  
Thoughts starting going through Juniper's head so quickly she started to breathe heavier.  
Occupant vitals...Normal  
 _What if this was a mistake? What if whatever this is kills all of us? Is Shaun too little to go into these?_ _What about our parents? Is Shaun going to grow up without knowing his family? No Al told me we'd keep him safe.  
_ With every second going by, It kept getting colder and colder Causing Juniper to breathe heavier.  
Procedure complete in 5...4…...3…..2….  
Everything disappeared slowly and Juniper fell into a deep sleep.  
Slowly Juniper heard herself breathing slowly at first then, faster and faster.  
All she could think was that she was cold.  
The same voice that did the countdown a few seconds ago said something about a manual cryogenic stasis being suspended. Juniper knew what those words meant but she couldn't piece them together, for some reason.  
Slowly her vision began to unblur, her pod's window was covered in ice. Eventually she could make out the image of Al holding Shaun across from her. _Is It over?_  
Someone covered in a strange white hazmat suit walked up to their pod.  
"This is the one" The figure said pointing at Al and Shaun. Juniper blinked hard to try and see who they were. Then someone else walked in front of her pod with their back facing Juniper. In a rough voice the man said  
" Open it."  
Their pod opened up Al hunched over coughing hard, while Shaun started to cry.  
" Is it over….Are we ...ok?" Al managed to get out while he coughed.  
The one in the white suite started to extend their hands towards Al, Juniper started to breathe heavier realizing something seemed off.  
" Hold on everything's going to be alright" The rough looking man said. The one in the white suit said softly" Come on come here"  
She was trying to take Shaun.  
Juniper's heart started racing _no, stay away from him_  
Al must have realized the same thing " No it's fine, NO I've got him!"  
Without a second through the rough looking man held a gun up " Let the boy go, I'm only going to tell you once"  
The white suited person started to grab at Shaun, causing Al to struggle with them.  
" I'M NOT GIVING YOU SHAUN" He screamed while shaun cried out in confusion.  
A loud gunshot echoed throughout Juniper's pod.  
 _Al...no  
_ Within an instant Juniper saw all of her memories of Alfonso, when they met, when they first kissed, the moment he proposed to her, their wedding, and the birth of their son.  
Tears trickled down her face while she watched her husband's body fall backwards and slowly slink down into the pod.  
Shaun's crying startled Juniper back into reality.  
Blinking quickly She scanned the room and saw the white hazmat suited person holding her son trying to comfort him. Rage started to fill Juniper's veins.  
The rough looking man looked around "God dammit, Get the kid out of here let's go"  
Al's pod started to shut, and the realization that she was trapped started to rise.  
 _I have to save him, How do I get this pod open, oh my god Shaun.  
_ The hazmat suit walked away holding shaun, _no no no,_ then the rough looking man walked up to the pod and came face to face with Juniper.  
"At least we still have the backup" He grumbled.  
Juniper tried to scream but her voice wasn't their, her body was still frozen.  
Cryogenic sequence reinitialized  
 _NO, SHAUN  
_ By the time Juniper was able to scream and move it was too late. She bashed on the glass while screaming  
" Come back here you son of a bitch, give me Shaun!"  
The glass started to ice over and the last though Juniper had was that she was going to kill whoever took away her family.


	2. The Plan

**Disclaimer: I Really want to have a good set up, so that's why things might seem a bit slow ;w;**

The second Time Juniper was frozen she actually dreamed. In her dream the bombs had never dropped, and Shaun had just went off to college. She was holding Al's hand and watching Codsworth trim their hedges. Al turned to her and Juniper smiled, " We always have the backup" Al coldly said, but it wasn't his voice, It was someone else's Juniper blinked and suddenly Al was replaced by the man who shot him and Codsworth was instead the white hazmat suited person who took shaun.  
 _No no no  
_ Juniper opened her eyes and all she saw was white, blinding white wherever she looked.  
Slowly she could feel herself being able to breathe easier and easier. Her vision started to unblur and the urge to cough overwhelmed her. Her pod started to open when the announcer stated that all pod residents must vacate immediately.  
Juniper stumbled out of her pod laying in the fetal position coughing so hard she felt tears streaming down her cheeks. When she looked up she knew why she kept crying. Al's pod remained unopened. Forcing herself to get up Juniper looked in and saw Al for who knows how long. Juniper shivered and started to panic. _I have to get him out of that pod… he can't be dead  
_ Pressing countless buttons on his pad's control pannel his door started to open.  
" Come on, come on, come on, please you can't be gone"

Juniper held onto her sides while the pod finished opening. His body laid there lifeless and iced over. Juniper felt the cold from his body resonating slowly in the air around him. She reached her hand up and brushed her fingertips to his cheek. Fighting back her sobs Juniper steadied herself  
"I'm going to find whoever did this, and I promise I'll get Shaun back." Juniper looked at his features one more time before she took his ring off and put it in her vault suite.  
 _I have to find a way out of here  
_ Juniper walked over to other pods, checking on each one hoping to find someone else. In a panic she ran over and checked the terminal, only to find that all the others had died in their pods due to asphyxiation. _Oh god I'm not breathing so hard because I'm cold, I almost ran out of oxygen too_

" I can't be the only one left, Hello...Anyone?" Juniper yelled, but there was no response.  
 _I have to get out of here  
_ Juniper started to make her way down the hallways trying to navigate through the forgotten vault. The only noise that followed her was the announcer telling her to vacate the vault.  
The door she remembered going through to enter the vault was locked, shivering she turned and went through the only other accessible door. Then Juniper looked through the first window she came across and shuddered. There were the largest cockroaches she'd ever seen in her life. _Oh my god they're huge please don't be the only way out  
_ Juniper came to a security terminal and read through every section after she kept walking trying to find out more information about the vault. _  
I have to figure out how to get out  
_ Juniper started to sprint through the halls only to trip over something, which sent her flying into the metal wall. She pushed herself up only to see one of those roaches crawling towards her from across the room. _Oh my god I tripped over It  
_ She tried to push herself away from it only to hit herself against the wall.  
"Fuck!"  
Right as she hit the wall the roach jumped at her, panicked she pumped the roach in which it's guts spilled over her hands as it died instantly.  
 _Please don't be anymore  
_ After navigating through the halls she came across the room that housed all of the huge roaches and the what looked to be a large reactor spewing electric currents out of the top of its receptors. A roach caught sight of Juniper and attempted to run at her, only to be electrocuted in less than a second. _  
Can't go that way  
_ Quietly she crouched and made her way around the railing only to find herself face to face with more roaches. Frustrated Juniper didn't give it a chance to attack she punched the first roach she saw and then the second. _  
Oh god I'm covered in this gross shit  
_ She kept sneaking until she came across a skeleton in a vault 111 jumpsuit  
" What happened to you" she looked at the tattered clothes " What happened here?"  
Juniper went through the door to her left, trying not to damage the skeleton. After walking up the stairs there were more roaches. _  
How many fucking roaches are there in this place?  
_ After she took care of the roaches Juniper walked through the door to what looked like the overseerers office. Another skeleton was sprawled out on the floor, next to a desk. Juniper saw the gun and the dried blood.  
 _Were these people trapped in here too? Is there no way out?  
_ Panicked she heard more roaches somewhere, and grabbed the gun.  
 _I don't know what the world is like up there, oh god I'm going to need so much  
_ Juniper started to pick up ammo, and stimpacks quickly. Before she left she read through the terminal trying to piece together what happened.  
 _We were always supposed to be frozen, and the overseerer never got an all clear alert?  
_ Juniper click to open the evacuation tunnel and the door sprung open.  
 _So wait did he not let anybody leave? Then he just killed himself?  
_ A cold shiver went up her spine as she walked through the door. The roaches were easier to deal with, especially now that she had a gun. After killing six of the smaller roaches, a huge one dropped from the ceiling and knocked her gun from her hand.  
" Fuck fine" Juniper screamed as she punched the huge mother roach. The roach died after two hits, allowing Juniper to pick back up the gun and continue down the hall.  
 _Fuck this place  
_ She wiped off the guts from the bugs onto her suit, and tried to straighten out her hair. Even though there was nobody there, and Al was dead Juniper had to try and do the things that kept her calm. The moment she thought of Al she felt her eyes starting to burn.  
 _No not now I have to make it out of here  
_ Pushing back her tears she kept walking. After opening the next door, she saw the entrance to the vault. Juniper started to sprint over to the door and heard the roaches. Quickly she aimed and hit both roaches after missing each of them at least once. The floor was littered with debris and skeletons. Juniper shuddered and realized she was going to have to take the pipboy off of the arm of a skeleton.  
 _It's the only thing I haven't tried to open the door, he doesn't need it now anyway  
_ Juniper cringed as she put her 10mm away and took off the pipboy. She heard the clang of the bones hitting the floor and jumped a little, before quickly powering up the pipboy on her arm.  
After plugging in the pipboy's cord to the door's control panel, Juniper hit the button to open the door. The announcer's voice rang through the empty room stating that the door was opening.  
 _This might be useful later on, I can see my vitals, and it has a map  
Theres the radio feature but, why would their be any radio station's left  
_Juniper made her way to the platform and felt it rumble and crouched while it jolted her upwards. When the platform reached the top, the doors started to open revealing the brightest light Juniper had ever seen.  
"Jesus" she whispered while she tried to cover her eyes  
The platform stopped and slowly the light didn't seem that bright anymore. When she opened her eyes nothing could have prepared her for what she saw. Juniper felt tears well up in her eyes, as she stumbled forward.  
 _Everything is ruined, It's all gone  
_ Juniper started to feel like she couldn't breathe.  
 _No no no, not now  
_ Panicked Juniper looked around and spotted the little control house next to the platform and sprinted to it. She tripped over a pile of skeletons, and fell onto the side of the ramp.  
"God fucking dammit" Looking over at what tripped her she saw in detail what the skeleton looked like.  
 _That could have been us, It should have been us  
_ Crawling up the ramp she found a corner and started to have what the doctors called attacks.  
The world closed in around her, and it was like she couldn't breathe. She was next to a wooden box that had the paint peeling off, and so she tried to focus on the box to calm down.  
 _Ok so it's been at least enough time for the paint to have worn down this much  
_ Brushing the stray hair strands back into her bun she started to calm down.  
It was hard to tell how much time had passed. Because it seemed like time had stood still while she was trying to manage her breathing. Juniper slowly got up and looked around, the sun was still out and the wind blew slightly. She got out her pipboy and looked at the time.  
 _Jesus two hours  
_ Rubbing her temples she started to make her way down the ramp and back to her old house.  
All the leaves were completely gone, it was like winter without any snow. Finding another small trailer filled with supplies she took what she could carry.  
 _Oh god how am I going to carry all of this around?  
_ Making her way down the path to her old house, she grabbed other supplies when she saw them. Their small coelvisac like housing development was rusted and broken down, but it was still standing. A familiar hum caused Juniper to start to run, when she went around the corner she saw the impossible. Codsworth was trimming what remained of their hedges.  
" It's...It's really you!" Codsworth floated closer, looking as happy as Juniper has ever seen him.  
" Codsworth you're really here, does that mean that other people are alive too?"  
 _There must be other people alive somewhere  
_ " Oh mum you look a little worse for ware, musent let the sir see you like this, where is he?"  
Trembling Juniper started to form the words before she got too overwhelmed to actually say them.  
" He's...In a better place" Codsworth didn't seem to understand fully and continued talking.  
Juniper only heard Codsworth mention Shaun's name in passing.  
" Shaun, they took him, someone took my baby" Juniper seethed, clenching her fists.  
" It's worse than I thought, You're suffering from hunger induced paranoia, Not eating properly for 200 years will do that to you." Codsworth scolded.  
 _200 years, 200…  
_ " 200 years, How is that possible?" Juniper looked around the neighborhood.  
 _Everything is really damaged, so It would make sense  
_ Codsworth kept talking, but Juniper didn't really listen to him until she heard him mention food.  
She accepted graciously and watched him go into the house while he hummed.  
After a few second he handed her a box of sugar bombs, she ripped them open and started to eat handfuls.  
" Mum if your going to go look for Shaun, I...I want to come along as well" Codsworth said hesitantly. Juniper had been sitting down eating, and slowly looked up.  
"Codsworth It's going to be dangerous, are you sure?"  
" Mum if it's dangerous I simply have to go with you" Codsworth hovered closer, causing juniper to cringe at him.  
 _Literal fire hazard  
_ Juniper sighed and brushed off her hands, "Ok Codsworth but, for today I'm going to look for some supplies and we'll go in the morning"  
" Very good mum I'll continue to scan the neighborhood for any threats" Codsworth said happily and floated away. Juniper took the day, going through the houses of her old neighbors and killing huge irradiated bugs. She found that one of her neighbors had thought to build a small shelter of their own, which was still filled with supplies. After she grabbed as much as she could she noticed the radio and turned it on out of curiosity.  
" Gotta love that...uh...Betty..Hutton right?" The man on the radio sounded so uncomfortable.  
 _So there's still radio but it's really really bad? Great  
_ Juniper climbed back up the latter and made her way to her old house.  
She walked in and it felt like it wasn't even her house anymore.  
 _I don't have time to do anything to clean it up, I just need to sleep.  
_ She moved stray pieces of furniture in front of all the doors, and asked codsworth to keep watch outside while she tried to get some sleep. Juniper opened up the bottle of Bourbon that was left in the cabinet by the now unusable radiation king television set. Juniper thumbed the mouth of bourbon bottle, and looked up at her crumbling ceiling. With tears streaming, she grieved. The loss of her husband and the loss of her baby. After several hours, she decided this was the last night she'd spend like this.  
The next day Juniper made her way out of sanctuary, and started to walk down the path to concord. Which Codsworth told her would be the best place to try and find any survivors, of the bombs. At Red rocket Juniper found a stray dog that looked so much like the dog her and Al had lost she was speechless. When the dog decided to come with her she was the happiest she'd been since she left the vault. The giant rodents that sprang up from the ground had left Codsworth a little more than damaged. Dogmeat had helped fend them off but, The damage Codsworth received still meant that he'd have to go back. Besides the fact that Codsworth had good intentions, but sometimes Juniper was still a little unsettled by his presence.

" Codsworth I'll meet back up with you after I ask the people in Concord about my son, I promise" Juniper patted Codsworth's head.  
" Oh mum do be careful." Codsworth floated the short distance back to Sanctuary, and when he was no longer in range Juniper continued to Concord.  
Concord still looked almost the same, but the sound of Gunfire drew Juniper's attention.  
Dog meat growled and looked in the direction it came from.  
"Easy boy" she said patting his head, Juniper got her gun out and started to sprint towards the gunfire. When she arrived at the sound she saw people dressed like they were insane, and shooting up at a man on a balcony.  
When one of them noticed, he immediately fired a shot that just grazed over her shoulder, causing dog meat to sprint over and almost rip a man's leg off. Bringing them to the rest of the group's attention.  
 _Great  
_ Juniper crouched besides a large concrete wall and started to fire at each one of what her pip boy called a raider, one by one. Dog meat would sometimes even hold a raider down by there leg for Juniper to shoot at more accurately.  
 _That's one hell of a dog  
_ Juniper smiled and got up when the last raider was down, only to see the man on the balcony lean over staring at her  
" I don't know who you are, but there's a group of settlers in here that really need you're help, the raider's are almost coming through our barricaded door." The man looked back behind him and Juniper looked at Dogmeat.  
" Please take the laser musket and come inside and help us!" The man disappeared through the door. Running towards the door she grabbed her new laser musket and went inside.


	3. New Friends

Juniper weaved through the museum of freedom, dispatching of every hostile she could find. Afterwards she came to a narrow hallway, and heard two people talking.  
" We have no reason to stay here, come on let's just go."  
" No we stay here and wait for the rest of them to come, we follow our orders."  
" I'm not waiting around here to get shot! Don't you hear someone shooting the place up?"  
" You make one move towards that exit and I'll gut you myself."  
Juniper crouched and moved slowly towards the sounds of the bickering.  
 _Grenades would be perfect right now  
_ She grabbed the only two she had and quickly tossed one towards them.  
 _Why didn't anything happen?  
_ " Forgot to pull the pin moron!"  
 _Fuck_  
Juniper heard the sound of the grenade hitting the display cabinet she was crouched against, Dogmeat's ears perked up and he bolted in the opposite direction.  
 _Run run run  
_ She made it about 5 feet when the cabinet exploded, hurdling her against the adjacent wall.  
 _Oh god, it feels like something is stabbing me  
_ Rolling over to her side she realized the cabinet was gone, and if the two of them weren't hurt in the explosion, they're going to be coming after her.  
She crawled over to the wall closest to them for cover.  
"Dogmeat stay over there."  
She whispered loud enough for him to hear, he responded with a whimper and sat down.  
" Jesus no body, Is she still alive?"  
Feeling her hands shaking, Juniper went through her bag and found the other grenade.  
"What was that?"  
 _Fuck, come on why won't this pull out  
_ She heard the footsteps drawing closer and closer, then finally the pin clinked and came out.  
Juniper threw the grenade at the wall in front of her, it then bounced off and thudded against one of them.  
" What the hell is tha-"  
He didn't get a chance to finish before he was blown apart. She got herself up and peeked around the corner. There were pieces of what use to be two people spewed all over.  
 _Oh god, should I not have done that? Wouldn't they have killed me?  
_ " Ok boy let's go."  
Juniper walked across the mixed body parts and shuddered, as dog meat nudged her back to the task at hand. Picking up the leftover ammo, she walked up the stairs and jerked to the side.  
" I'm coming in there and I'm going to fucking skin every last one of you!"  
" Come on man, she got other shit to deal with, there not going anywhere."  
There was a pause,  
"You heard that, I gotta go take a little walk, but when I get back you'll all be dead."  
He snickered and moved farther away from where Juniper was.  
Juniper looked through the part of the wall that had pieces missing in it, She watched someone walk past the wall on the other side.  
 _Now's my chance  
_ She cycled her laser musket enough for two shots, If she timed this right that would be enough.  
Moving quietly forward she saw one man walk through the door and go the other way.  
 _One  
_ She shot him in the head, and waited.  
The next man rushed through the door.  
 _Two  
_ After he received the last shot Juniper had loaded, she cycled her musket for two more just in case.  
"Come on!"  
Juniper recognized the voice, she looked through the door and to the right and saw the next door was open.  
 _Finally  
_ She Slung her musket over her shoulder and sprinted towards the door, with dogmeat on her heel.  
" Man I don't know who you are"  
Juniper looked up and saw the man up close for the first time.  
His face was clean and shaven, and his eyes were a deep dark chocolate and his skin matched them. He wore the type of hat that only cowboys wore in the movies, and had a jacket with multiple layers underneath.  
" But, you're timing is impeccable."  
Although he looked, friendly he still handled his musket pointing it off to the side.  
 _Can I trust him? Who is he?  
_ Juniper had eyed him up and down, and slightly ignored him when he stated he was with the minutemen. She was going to have to have an edge to her if she was going to find any information on her son.  
" You owe me" She said coldly enough that his eyes darkened a little.  
 _Instantly regretting that  
_ " Yeah sure thing, I'll give you my chest full of emeralds once we're done with this mess."  
Juniper looked from him and around the room for the first time, she saw other faces who looked equally scared and nervous.  
" Who are these people?"  
"They're people just looking for a home" He said looking sadly.  
" I've been with them since Quincy then, Lexington looked safe, but the ghouls drove us out. A month ago there was over 20 of us, Yesterday there was 8, today there's just 5." He sounded like the guilt was pouring out of him. Juniper loosen her stance a bit, he must feel like this was all his fault.  
" All that's left is me, Marcy and Jun Long, old mama Murphy, and this here's Sturges."  
"Hey" Sturges said with a raspy voice.  
" Sorry, It sounds rough" Juniper said quietly. Still a little embarrassed she was rude earlier.  
The man's eyes shimmered,  
"Thanks, It's good to meet someone who really cares." He smiled, and continued  
"Anyway we figured Concord would be a safe place to settle, those raiders proved us wrong. But we do have one idea" The look he gave her made her a little nervous.  
" Well let's hear it"  
Preston turned to Sturges, and Juniper saw two scars. One across his eye, and one down his hairline, ending by his ear.  
"Well tell her"  
Sturges, stood up from the computer he had been messing with.  
"There's a crashed vertibird, on the roof. Old school, pre war, you might have seen it."  
 _You have no idea_  
" Well one of the passenger's left behind a goody" He smiled  
"A full suit of T-45 power Armour, military issued."  
 _I don't want to look stupid, but I have no idea why this is so special  
_ " What makes this power armor so special?"  
Strugres' eyes lite up,  
"A West Trek Servo-system, That's what. Inside that baby is the new normal. You'll be stronger, tougher and more resistant to rads." He caught his breath, and continued  
" Plus once you're in that suit, you can rip the mini gun right off the damn bird and use it to send those raiders right back to hell!"  
" A mini gun? That'll do it" Juniper had a brief idea of what that was, but the way he talked about it, it must be something that would really help them.  
" Only there's one problem, the suit needs power, it's probably been dry for hundred some years."  
" So what's the solution?" Juniper reached down and started to run her fingers through Dog meat's fur. He'd been so quiet, and she was getting the feeling they're day had just started.  
" We need a military grade fusion core, it's like a giant battery for these things and other generators." Preston chimed in, Struges started to shake his head and continued.  
" Only problem is, the one we found is locked up tight on the first level of this building."  
He sighed  
"Look I fix things and tinker, but getting through security gates is not my Forte, you could always give it a try"  
Juniper felt the heat of having so many eyes on her,  
" Yeah, I'll give it a go" With that she turned and started to make her way down stairs,  
 _Ugh Shaun, please hold on  
_ After fiddling with the lock for a few minutes, It finally gave way and opened up.  
" Alright boy, let's get this core and get this over with."  
Dogmeat barked and followed her up to the roof access point. Juniper listened to the holo tape of the power armour's last owner. Up until then she hadn't really realized how many people may have survived and continued on with their new post-apocalyptic life. Frowning she rubbed her temple, ever since she had woken up, she'd had problems remembering things from her past life. Simple things, and something very important kept escaping her everytime she tried to remember it.  
 _Dammit, what was it  
_ " Hey boss I think there's somebody up on the roof."  
Juniper quickly went through her bag and grabbed the fusion core. After twisting the valve and inserting the fusion core into the slot, she punched the core the rest of the way in.  
 _Come on come on come on,  
_ The suit hissed and opened up,  
" Ok just stay cool and we got this" Preston announced from somewhere on the balcony,  
" Wait what? " Juniper looked inside the suit and bit the corner of her lip.  
" You want me to get inside this thing? I Don't know how!" Juniper felt her palms sweating,  
" Nobody knows how to do something until they just do it, You're our only hope."  
 _If I don't these people will die, but if I do I might not be able to find Shaun  
_ The sounds of multiple raiders closing in on the museum drew her away from her thoughts,  
Dog meat ran up besides Juniper and nudged her to the suit,  
" Alright, alright I get it"  
After taking a deep breath, Juniper grab ahold of the inside of the suit and pulled herself in.  
It was small, and made her feel a little claustrophobic, but she didn't have time to think before she heard Preston scream in pain.  
What started out as a run towards what only could be the Mini gun, turned into a full blown sprint. She grabbed the sides of the gun and pulled as hard as she could, until the gun finally away from the vertibird.  
 _Yes  
_ Juniper made her way to the edge of the building, and saw multiple raiders taking cover by cars, and destroyed buildings.  
" Why don't you get down here and show me that big gun up close" A larger raider taunted her,  
" That's just what I was about to do!"  
Juniper took a leap of faith and jumped off the roof, while she was falling she saw Preston on the balcony grabbing his shoulder, his fingers stained a deep crimson.  
 _I'm not letting these people loose the only one whose protected them all this time,  
_ With a new determination she braced herself as she crashed into the pavement.  
The first raider who sprinted up to her power armor, Juniper grabbed her by the arm and squeezed hard. The raider screamed and drew her knife to where the power armor helmet connected to the suit.  
" Fuck you metal bitch!"  
The raider's knife didn't even cut through anything before Juniper threw her head back and instinctively threw it back towards the Raider's face. Without looking, she knew she was dead, and moved onto the raider that had been attempting to shoot her behind a car.  
Juniper started the mini gun up, and aimed straight for where fuel use to be put inside of the old pre war cars. What was a small fire quickly exploded into a huge one, killing not only the raider that was behind, but also injuring a raider that had started to charge up to her.  
 _There can't be that many more lingering around after that  
_ Within a second a raider had hit her from behind with the stock of their shotgun, making her stumble over to her right knee. Juniper jerked her arm up to shield her from the next blow,  
" Thought you could just come down here, kill all my men and fucking live after?" It was the larger raider, who had taunted her to come down from the roof.  
" You killed them yourself, by starting this fight" Juniper's voice had a metallic hue to it, but her point still got across. After that the raider started unloading onto her with his shotgun. Juniper's mini gun was still starting up by the time he had pumped, at least two shells into her left leg. The suit started beeping wildly, and on her control panel she saw that her once red lined left leg, was now empty. She had no more armor at all left on her leg.  
 _Fuck, come on just fucking shoot  
_ Her minigun fired straight into his skull, but not in time for a shell to strike the side of her calf.  
"God dammit" Juniper fell into the rubble besides her and watched the pavement run wild with her blood.  
 _At least they're all gone  
_ She threw her head back and exhaled, she'd never been shot before, but it could have been so much worse.  
" What are you doing?! Get out of there!" Preston screamed,  
A low grumble shook the ground around her, looking up she saw scales.  
 _What the hell,  
_ Juniper kept looking up until she locked eyes with the beast responsible for killing the last few raiders that made the mistake of running away. It's horns were stained a deep red, as were all of it's large claws. Juniper just kept eye contact with it, as it started to circle around her. Even though it was 20 feet away, it felt too close. It twisted it's head to the side and inhaled sharply, while licking it's lips. It eyed her leg up, and scratched at the ground with it's long back legs.  
 _It can smell all the blood, there's no way I can run  
_ Juniper still had her finger on the minigun's trigger, and with a sharp breath she pushed the trigger down. The beast howled so loudly, Juniper screamed and the minigun started to fire round after round into the animal's stomach. Almost as if it made no difference it was getting shot at, it ran towards her and jumped on top of her.  
" You get the hell off of her!" Preston screamed from the balcony and started to fire laser rounds into the beast's face. It raised it head up enough to howl at him giving, Juniper the moment she needed to grab the dead Raider's knife. The same knife that almost cut her throat, she used to slash as hard as she could into the beast's neck. With a sharp scream of pain, the creature drew it's claws backward and went for the wound she received from the shotgun shells.  
Juniper cried out, and jerked upwards and drew the knife into the creature's throat so far she saw the tip of the knife behind it's neck. With it's last attempts of screaming at her, blood spewed out, covering her hands, and splattering onto her helmet.  
 _Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god,  
_ With a thud, it landed on top of her. The creature was so heavy she couldn't just push it off of her. Slowly Juniper nudge out from under it, but not before she felt it's blood run into her suit and down her chest and stomach. She detached her helmet just in time to lose everything Codsworth had fed her this morning.  
" Ugh, god it's everywhere." Juniper wiped her mouth off and got to her feet. Dogmeat barked and ran towards the museum's door.  
"Yeah I guess we better go check on them, huh boy?" Juniper limped over and opened the door,  
" That...was a pretty amazing display, I'm just happy you're on our side" Preston stood his gun vertically and smiled  
" Is everybody ok?" Juniper tried to conceal her damaged leg, only because she wasn't sure if anybody was more her than she was.  
" Yeah they are, thank you. Hey, at first when you said that we owed you, " Preston reached around in his jacket,  
 _Oh god that's right, I was a total ass  
_ "Listen, I didn-"  
" It's not a chest full of emeralds but it's all that we can give you." Preston walked over and handed Juniper a sack full of bottle caps.  
Before She could protest, Preston looked down at her leg and looked quickly back up,  
" Why didn't you say anything? Here we'll patch you up." Preston pulled out a stimpack and kneeled down to her left leg.  
 _Uhh, this is so awkward,  
_ Juniper wished her helmet was on, and looked anywhere but at Preston.  
Preston completely oblivious, applied the stimpack, and med x to her wound. Afterwards he wrapped it up, since all of the amour was gone from her left leg, it was easy to unattach the frame from the main suit.  
" That should do it" Preston stood up and scanned Juniper's red face,  
" Thank you, I should get along fine now" Preston looked confused  
 _It's like we're from a completely different time, ugh  
_ "" Thanks again for your help" Preston reached out and shook Juniper's hand.  
" Anytime Preston" Juniper smiled back at him,  
"Well since you say that, " Preston looked at the rest of his group and back at her,  
" You could always join us, we were about to head to sanctuary."  
Juniper's eyes lite up when he mentioned her housing development,  
" Sure, I was about to head back there anyway" Before Preston could say anything, the older woman by the name of Mama Murphy spoke up.  
" There's more to your destiny than just this kid." she caught her breath and went on,  
" I feel your pain no, I've seen your pain"  
 _What is she talking about?, wait Shaun?  
_ Juniper left her suit and walked over to the older woman,  
" Please tell me, don't pull the wool over my eyes." Juniper kneeled down and looked at the woman, searching in her hazy eyes for an answer.  
" What wool? She's just as crazy as old Mama Murphy" Marcy long sneered from across the room. Juniper shot her a glare. She looked back quickly when she heard Mama Murphy start to talk again.  
" You're a woman out of time, out of hope, but it's not all lost...Your son" Juniper felt her eyes water as Mama murphy took her hands in hers.  
" He's still alive I can feel his energy." Mama Murphy shut her eyes and looked like she was focusing.  
" Please can you tell me where my son is, where is Shaun." Juniper begged her,  
" God I wish I knew kid, All I know is that he's alive. The sight doesn't give me anything else." Mama Murphy shook her head sadly.  
" I know where you should start looking though. Diamond city, the jewel of the commonwealth."  
" Is shaun there, In Diamond city?" Juniper felt her heart racing,  
" Kid I'm tired, Maybe later if you bring me some chems" Mama Murphy's demeanor changed when she mentioned chems,  
" The sight will give me more, if you just give me some" Juniper felt her heart sink, even if she was telling the truth, getting an old woman drugged to find her son wouldn't be right.  
" What did I tell you before, Those chems will kill you" Preston walked over and Juniper retracted her hands from Mama Murphy's and stood back up.  
" The sight will help her, just like it's helped all of us. Besides everybody's gonna die eventually" Mama Murphy rasped, and Juniper noticed how harshly her chem addiction had aged her.  
Preston sighed,  
" Alright everyone it's time to move out to sanctuary, thanks to our new friend here." Preston announced to everybody,  
" Oh sure we're going to go somewhere just because Murphy had one of her visions? When she was higher than Trinity Tower?" Everytime she spoke Marcy spewed venom,  
Preston started trying to calm her down, when Struges stepped in.  
" Look just calm down, where else are we going to go?" With that Marcy was silent,  
" Why don't we just give it a try?" The man next to her said sadly, his face looked it was permanently in a state of depression. Marcy glared at him but, within seconds sighed.  
" Fine, come on Jun" Marcy hoisted herself up and started to walk towards the door.  
" Oh okay.." Jun got up quickly and tried to keep up with his ill tempered wife.  
" Let's just hope it lives up to it's name." Struges smirked and walked away.  
Juniper sighed and walked back towards her suit, after rubbing Dogmeat behind the ears she got into her suit and went out the door.  
 _I hope this gets easier_


	4. A Walk Interrupted

The walk from Concord to Sanctuary wasn't long enough, Juniper still had no real lead on Shaun, and the sun was already going down. Codsworth greeted the group and showed Struges where to set up his work area. The new additions to Sanctuary decided to squat in the house across from hers. Juniper had gone back into her house and looked around. In one way she wanted everything to stay the same, and to try and make it look like how her house use to look. In another way, she wanted to gut the whole thing. Juniper grabbed a lantern, and lit the candle inside right in time to hear a knock on her door.  
" It's Preston Garvey, can I come in?"  
 _Sigh  
_ " Yeah sure, I have nothing else better to do" Juniper tossed her pack down and sat on the destroyed arm chair. There was a certain air of formality that she was attempting to retain. Even though she knew most of the mannerisms of her time didn't translate over to this one, It was hard to change your habits overnight. Preston walked in and shut the door behind him.  
 _Shit I should have offered him something  
_ " Oh uh, can I get you anything, a drink maybe?" Juniper jerked upwards and eyed Preston,  
" Not something that I'm normally asked, but sure." Preston walked to the couch and sat down,  
 _Where's the drink cabinet?  
_ Juniper scoured through the rubble that used to be the liquor cabinet, until she found a bottle of Bourbon.  
" Now I just need a glass" she murmured.  
" Have you been living here long?" Preston asked from across the room.  
 _Oh man, how do I even explain this  
_ Trying to hold back laughing, Juniper answered as best she could.  
" Yes and no." She found her good glasses that survived mildly unscathed.  
" Is what Mama Murphy said true?" Preston had his hands intertwined and was looking at the ground hunched over.  
" Would you believe me if I said yes?" Juniper poured their drinks and walked over handing Preston his.  
" Kinda stingy, especially for a house guest" Preston chuckled and drank the whole thing in one gulp.  
" Everything is so different now" Juniper walked the rest of the bottle over to Preston and set it down in front of him and returned to her arm chair.  
" I know I just met you, and you saved a lot of lives today. Not just ours, but other settlements who may have had trouble with those Raiders. It might not be any of my business, but someone with your skills would be extremely beneficial to the minutemen.  
 _I don't even know this guy and he wants me to join the wanna be malita of post apocalyptic Boston?  
_ " I think you have me confused for someone else" Juniper readjusted in her seat and crossed her legs, while sipping on her drink.  
" I saw the way you handled yourself, and with a little bit of practice you could help us and yourself. If Mama Murphy was right and someone did take your son, I'd be happy to help you.  
Juniper eyed him up and down and sighed.  
" Look you seem like a nice enough guy, so i'll be straight with you." Taking a deep breath, she began to explain everything. As she went on she watched his expression change from skepticism to intrigue. As she explain her situation to someone that wasn't a robot, it started to sink in more and more.  
" I have no idea what's happened in the last 200 or so years. What I do know is that, I don't stand a chance as it is now. I could charge into the new Commonwealth and figure things out as I go, or I could wait and learn how to survive." She looked up at preston and was met with a look of pity,  
" This changes everything, I'm sorry truly." Preston reached his arm over and held Juniper's shoulder.  
" Did you ever have any experience with weaponry, before the bombs?"  
" Are you kidding, from what I can remember I was an average newlywed mother." Juniper couldn't help but smile,  
" I mean we did do some crazy stuff back then, like go shopping, and see movies." Preston looked at her like she was crazy,  
 _Maybe sarcasm is extinct too, sigh  
_ Before Preston left he asked her all sorts of questions about what the world use to be like. After around 3 hours she has to usher him out the door. Juniper leaned with her back against the door and sighed. She didn't use to mind being alone but now, when she was it was a reminder. A remind that everything she loved and hoped for was gone.  
 _I have to wait, I have to get better at surviving to be able to find Shaun. If i can't learn to survive how will I teach him to? Could we even come back to this house?  
_ Juniper looked around and felt tears welling up in her eyes.  
 _I have to make it work, If Al was here...he'd make it work.  
_ She grabbed the rest of the Bourbon and made her way to the bedroom. She set up makeshift curtains and got out of her vault suit.  
" Here boy, where's that scruffy dog?" Juniper waited and saw Dogmeat charge around the corner jumping onto the bed.  
" I'm never gunna be alone if I have you huh?" Juniper smiled and snuggled into bed with the German shepherd.

The next morning Juniper began teaching Marcy and Jun how to grow crops. Although she only had ever grown a small vegetable garden it was still more than most city survivors. Struges taught her how to tinker, and she in turn collected supplies for him. Preston drew her a map of settlements across the Commonwealth. This was a little intimidating at first, but he said that if she spent the time learning how to navigate, and helping people along the way it would be better for everybody. One of the best new set ups was next to the house that the new settlers were squatting in. There was mostly ruins of an old house, which was easy to move and salvage parts from. In turn Juniper built an area to have meetings in, and have large gatherings.  
Mama murphy advised Juniper to " Build somewhere for everything to eat and drink". Although Juniper didn't like her chem habit she began to trust the sight, especially with the details she would tell her now and then. After Preston teaching her as much as she could, Juniper began to help settlements and recruit them to the "minutemen". It had been a month and Juniper started to get antsy to find answers. After a day full of assigning housing to a new family, she met up with Preston.  
" Preston, do you have a minute?" Juniper was walking in sync with him while he was patrolling,  
" Of course what do you need?" He eyed the surrounding woods from sanctuary and eventually looked over at Juniper.  
 _Just tell him, he can't be that angry  
_ " Preston I've learned alot in the last month but, I can't keep waiting to go find him." Juniper kept on, even when Preston looked hurt.  
" I know you'll be able to handle things here, I'm sure everyone will be fine. Besides the sooner I find him the sooner I can come back."  
Preston stopped walking and sighed  
" Look I don't like it, But you've definitely improved from when we met. It'll be dangerous, the way to Diamond city is a long one."  
" Preston you know me, It'll be like riding a bike. Really terrible at first but, eventually you can't fall off forever!" Juniper smirked and Preston shook his head. This wasn't the first time She'd attempt to make jokes around Preston. During a couple of Minutemen mission she'd made similar remarks which always took him off guard.  
" Sometimes I don't think you'd make sense even if I was pre-war. Alright, you should get some sleep and head out in the morning." Preston tipped his hat and continued his route.  
" Night, Preston!" Juniper watched him raise his hand and wave while still walking the other way.  
 _They'll be fine, Besides Codsworth will be here too  
_ Right as Juniper turned around Codsworth was hovering over to her,  
" Mum is it true? Are you really leaving?"  
" Codsworth, I have to find Shaun sometime, and besides you need to help these guys survive."  
Juniper motioned to all the lite up houses in the distance,  
" At least let me gather supplies for you, before you begin such a dreadful walk." Codsworth's eyes refocused,  
 _I know just what to ask him  
_ "Before I leave could you grab me some water?" Juniper started walking towards the house and Codsworth made his way towards the river.  
" Yes mum, right away"  
 _Now's the only time that works to clean up, It's not I can take a bath during the day. Not with all the renovations going on here, especially not with Preston walking in all the time.  
_ Juniper opened the door to her house and walked towards the island. There were Blueprints and diagrams all over the kitchen island, all ways to make Sanctuary a better place. Juniper went through them until she found the one she hadn't told Struges about. It was a simple one for a Basketball area. Not that anybody knew what it was, but these people need something that isn't just drinking to relax. It was a surprise that only she was going to work on. Juniper untied her hair and felt the weight fall past her shoulders. Codsworth reappeared through the backdoor with several buckets of steaming water.  
" All prepared for you mum" He drifted over towards the bathroom and set them all in there.  
" Thank you for the water, you're off for the night. Have a good one" She patted him and walked into the bathroom. She heard him whizz around, not knowing what to do. This happened every time she told him to go and relax.  
 _I wish he knew how to, or could learn to relax.  
_ She washed through her hair and finished cleaning herself up, just in time to hear Dogmeat scratching at the door.  
" Hold on boy, It's almost bedtime" Juniper quickly put on her nighttime clothes and opened the door to an excited Dogmeat. Dogmeat had begun to love snuggling under the covers with Juniper every since the weather had slightly started to be a bit cooler. After all it was Early December.  
 _That's right Christmas is right around the corner. Do they even celebrate Christmas anymore?  
_ Juniper nudged her face into Dogmeat's fur  
 _Will Shaun spend his first Christmas alone?  
_ With that thought she snuggled onto Dogmeat closer and tried to fall asleep.  
When she dreamed she always had fragments of her old life come back to her. Like where she grew up, or small things from her past. She still couldn't remember things that felt extremely important. Juniper finally drifted off into her dream and felt herself slip away.  
" Mom I'm just fine, I don't need anybody to watch out for me" A young Juniper with a waved pixie cut, was throwing clothes into a suitcase.  
 _I don't remember this  
_ "I just don't want you to repeat the same mistakes again" Her mother readjusted her updo and leaned against the door.  
The young Juniper turned around to face her mother and walked towards her,  
" She was never a mistake, the mistake was that I entrusted her to you."  
" How dare you, little ingrate" Her mother looked furious  
 _When did this happen?  
_ " You can't keep her from me forever mother. Sooner or later one of us will slip up, My bets on you." Juniper kept eye contact with her mother.  
" Get your filthy things out of my house, you cheap tramp" Her mother raised her chin up high and tightened her jaw line.  
Juniper picked her bags up and walked by her mother and stopped,  
" Don't you mean daddy's house? Or does it belong to the next husband now?"  
 _I don't understand, I never remembered this? Did this really happen?  
_ In an instant she opened her eyes to the bright morning light, grumbling she turned over to her side and tried to fall back asleep.  
" Mum I'm terribly sorry to wake you bu-"  
" nmm no Cods no" Juniper tried to roll away but was met by Dogmeat licking her face to get her up,  
"Whyy, are you workin to together now?" Juniper rubbed her eyes and sat up and instantly knew what she forgot to do last night.  
" Codsworth.." Juniper looked at him through a mess of curls,  
" I know mum I'm sorry, you dismissed me before I could remind you to perform your straightening tasks."  
 _Ugh  
_ " It's fine, I'll figure something out. Thanks for waking me up" Juniper sighed and got up to try and straighten her hair into a tight bun. After a few tried her hair was less curly but still had wave to it.  
 _I just don't care, I'll wear a helmet.  
_ She loaded up her supplies, and got into her new and improved power armor suit.  
" Give em hell, General" Preston waved goodbye to her and Codsworth hovered next to him. Preston after Juniper had recruited other settlements into their cause decided to give her the rank of General. He said he didn't have what it took to reform the minutemen, which she didn't believe. He still held onto alot of the guilt that was from the Quincy massacre. Even though Juniper tried to convince him it wasn't his fault he still, would get this thousand yard stare in his deep dark eyes and just shake his head.  
" Take care of each other you two!" Juniper waved and started making her way into the heart of the Commonwealth.

While passing through Gray garden Juniper picked up a new frequency she'd never heard before. It was jumbled but she did make out that someone at the Cambridge police station needed help.  
 _It's along the way,  
_ " Alright boy let's go see what's going on" Dogmeat barked playfully and they were on their way.  
It was about 5 blocks away when she heard the gunfire,  
 _Jesus there still under attack?  
_ When Juniper got there she saw multiple people in uniforms, and one in a power armor suit. They were being attacked by feral ghouls, and by the looks of it they might not win.  
Juniper grabbed her minigun and let it start cycling up, just in time to alert the ferals to her presence. Dogmeat ran over and held them each down by their legs while Juniper disposed of them. When she was the man in the power armor fall to his knees, she quickly ran in front of him and gave him some cover.  
" Get yourself together and I'll give you some cover." she wasn't sure if he heard her or not, but there was another wave of ferals coming. Dogmeat had just finish up one roamer, when out of the corner of her eye she saw a withered ghoul jumping onto his back.  
" God dammit!" Juniper sprinted over and knocked the ghoul off with the side of her minigun.  
She fired multiple rounds into the ghouls head until, there was just mush remaining.  
Dog snarled in the opposite direction and Juniper swung her gun around just in time, to protect the man still on the ground. After that there was an eerie silence.  
" Anymore?" Juniper looked around and Dogmeat sniffed the ground around them and ran over to the man. The man stood up and started to make his way over to her. He looked at her up and down and looked on guard.  
" Thank you for your help civilian, However what is your business here?" His jawline was rigid,  
"I'm just passing through, trying to survive out here" Juniper lowered her minigun and eased up a bit.  
" I highly doubt that, the way that you came charging in here" the man still held eye contact,  
Juniper frowned at bit, usually when she came charging in and helped people they were a little more gracious.  
" You're awfully suspicious of someone who gave you cover while you were down." The man broke eye contact and looked away,  
" But anyway, I'm from a vault. I'm just on my way to Diamond city" Juniper reached down and nuzzled Dogmeat with her knuckles.  
" You're a vault dweller?" His Chestnut eyes looked like they were going to pop out,  
" I appreciate your honesty, I'm sorry.. If I was rude earlier. We've been under constant fire since we got to this station, we could use someone as skilled as you are."  
Juniper eyed the power armor suit and the way that they handled themselves,  
" I want to help you guys, but I don't don't like secrecy. Who are you guys?" She looked over to the two others in matching uniforms behind him.  
The man sighed, " Very well, my name is Paladin Danse, and over there is scribe Haylen, and  
Knight Rhys. We're from the Brotherhood of steel."  
"Were you around before the war? Or did you form after" This question seemed to confuse Danse  
" Our first leader led a group of soldiers to investigate a medical research facility. Shortly after the bombs fell, and he led his group of soldiers and their families into a fallout bunker in california. Now we try to bring order back into the wasteland, scavenging pre-war technology to preserve." Danse looked like he was going to explode from so much patriotism,  
" All you need now is an American flag behind you" Juniper smiled and Scribe Haylen giggled behind him. However this went over Danse's head and he looked confused.  
" What we need now is a signal boost to be able to call for help, from our superiors." Danse looked away  
" I'm also down one man and we're running out of supplies at an alarming rate."  
Scribe Haylen sheepishly walked closer  
" Sir If I May?"  
" Proceed Haylen," Danse turned his attention to the Scribe  
" I modified the Satellite's signal but it's not enough, there's an arc jet system facility nearby. There should be a transmitter that we need to send a strong signal."  
Danse looked back at Juniper  
" We go in and get the transmitter and come back, simple. Will you lend the Brotherhood of Steel a hand?" Danse searched Junipers for an answer  
Juniper Reached down for her minigun and let it rest on her hip,  
" I don't know about the Brotherhood of Steel but, I'll do it to help you all out." She smiled and started walking out, she looked back and saw a confused Danse,  
" Well come on, Big guy Let's go!" Dogmeat ran around the entrance,  
" Outstanding" Danse started to clang towards her.

After a short walk filled with Danse telling Juniper all about the Brotherhood of Steel's past in the area, they arrived at the front entrance of the Arc Jet system's building. Juniper almost ran into Danse's back because he stopped so quickly.  
" Listen I don't want any heroics or antics, I want this done clean and by the book." Danse turned around and looked at Juniper sternly  
" Got it" Juniper readied her Minigun and braced herself for whatever they'd find.  
" Outstanding, and check your fire. I don't want to be hit by any stray bullets" Danse turned and opened the door to the facility. Juniper rolled her eyes and followed him in.  
 _We get it you're an army guy  
_ The lobby was mostly garbage and rubble. Juniper looked around and saw nothing worth taking and walked over to Danse.  
" It was corporation's like this that put the last nail in the coffin for this country. They used technology for their advantage and pocketed the results." He looked angry  
" You do know that, places like this were everywhere right. That everybody had to make a living somehow. You shouldn't be so quick to judge the decisions made in the past." Juniper walked by him and furrowed her brow a bit.  
As if Danse didn't know what to say he quickly went to the next room,  
" Look at this, all of the building's defense robots have been taken care of." He looked over to the doorway she was in.  
" Isn't that a good thing?" Juniper went to keep walking but then realized something.  
" Wait does that mean someone else is here? Who would bother to come in here?"  
Danse shook his head, "I don't know but keep your guard up civilian."  
They both readied their weapons and continued through the next room.  
They came across what looked like a dead end.  
" Work on getting this door open and I'll scan the area for anything useful." Danse started to look through old files that littered the floor. Across the room there was a terminal that had the exact password that they needed for that door. Juniper wrote it down and made her way to the terminal that was wired to the door. Next to it she found a holo tape and sat against the desk and listen to it. Danse looked up and listened quickly along with her. At the end she put the tape in her bag and entered in the password for the door. Before she hit enter Danse looked over at her.  
" Why are you keeping that Holotape?" He stood up and walked over to the front of the desk. Juniper looked down and shrugged.  
" Sometimes, If the tape is Pre-war I like to listen to them. It reminds me that things weren't always like this." Juniper saw the confusion in his face.  
" I told you I was from a vault right? Well I was frozen, right as the bombs were falling. My family ran to the shelter and I was unfrozen around a month ago." Danse looked astounded,  
" I'm sorry, I had no idea. I wouldn't have said anything earlier about this place if-" Juniper waved her hand  
" No don't worry about it, you didn't know. Maybe you were right even, It's hard to really piece together the past sometimes." Juniper looked down at the terminal and hit enter, right as she did she heard a distorted voice.  
" Is someone present?" Danse and Juniper both looked at each other and looked back at the door with their guns raised. 3 robots very closely resembling the structure of a human ran into the room. 2 had Batons and the other had a small rifle that started to shoot laser rounds at Danse. Juniper cycled her minigun and dispatched of one of the batons and the one with the rifle.  
" Behind you!" Danse shouted just seconds short, Juniper turned right as the shock baton his her right arm. The shock caused Juniper to drop her minigun and she jerked backwards, Danse quickly aimed for the being's head. Mechanical parts rained down on Juniper, she quickly scrambled to get up.  
" Easy, Tango down." Danse walked over and went to give her a hand.  
" Don't worry I'm not that bad off." Juniper managed to get herself up without help and checked her minigun.  
" I guess no more minigun, I'm out of ammo." Juniper went through her bag and found a 10mm pistol. Danse blocked her from walking to the next room.  
" What is it?" She back away and peered up at him.  
" I should have told you earlier, but I wasn't sure that I could trust you. I apologize." Danse went on before Juniper could say anything.  
" This looked like insitute work, the way there was no blood in the room with the destroyed protectrons. What we just fought were synths, there mechanical abominations." Danse's eyes darkened.  
" You're likely to have no idea, who the institute is." Juniper shrugged and Danse continued.  
" The institute creates these synths, and the worst part is no one knows where they are. They've been using this kind of technology since pre-war. There're the Commonwealth's biggest threat, we're likely to find more synths." His eyes darkened and he looked towards the next room.  
"Alright, let's get rid of them then." Juniper cocked a smile and raised her pistol.  
" Outstanding" Danse smiled warmly and turned around.  
 _If he wasn't such a Jarhead he'd be pretty cute  
_ Juniper looked up and met eyes with Danse,  
" Oh sorry I'm coming!" She caught up with him and ran her palm down her head to keep her hair in it's bun.  
 _Awkward ugh, I forgot to wear my power armor, that's what I forgot  
_ When they made it around the corner they were met by 6 more synths, which were easy to deal with once she knew where to aim. Danse was hit enough on his torso to damage his power armor but not enough for it to fall apart on him.  
" We must be getting close, " He raised his weapon again and continued, ignoring his torso.  
The rest of the way to the engine core was met by minimal resistance.  
Juniper looked behind her and saw that Danse had stopped. She turned to him and motioned forward,  
" Common let's make tracks" Danse pinched the bridge of his nose and started to walk again.  
" I was confirming our location, the engine core should be down these stairs." He decided to go first and made his way down the staircase.  
" The scribe's would have a field day here" Danse kept walking but looked around marveled at the vastness of the space.  
" We need to find a way to get that elevator back online. Try get the power back" Juniper nodded and went through the only open door there was. After fiddling with the terminal she got the power back online, soon after she heard gunfire. Danse was fighting off multiple synths that kept dropping down, after Juniper saw at least a dozen on the ground she panicked.  
 _This might kill him, but if i don't he won't make it either.  
_ She slammed her fist down on the button and heard a rumbled and a countdown. Soon after the engine started up.  
" Oh my god...DANSE RUN" Juniper started to pound on the glass window in front of her, Danse looked over and quickly put his helmet on. The whole room erupted in fire, every synth fell and crumbled to ash. Juniper looked back over at Danse and saw him in a fetal position protecting himself. The doors down the hall reopened and the fire stopped. Dogmeat barked and ran towards the door, with juniper right behind him. Dogmeat stopped abruptly in the doorway, she looked down and saw the floor was still steaming. Juniper cringed started to run to Danse.  
" Stay boy, I'll be right back" Juniper called back to Dogmeat and he whimpered.  
Juniper grabbed bottles of water from her pack and poured them all over Danse's armor and around where he was crouching. There was a loud hissing noise from the steam but Juniper grabbed his Helmet and slid it off. Danse's eyes were closed tightly.  
" Danse are you alright, oh my god." Juniper held his face and searched for any burns.  
" I'm fine, my suit protected me." Danse opened his eyes and looked up towards Juniper.  
Juniper quickly remembered his Torso armor wasn't intact.  
" What about your torso? You're armor suffered some damage." She knelt down and inspected his chest area. Danse went to get up and winced.  
" There could be some damage but, It's minimal." He looked away and turned a little red.  
" Anyway I'm fine, you should worry about keeping yourself safe." He got up and made his way to the elevator and was quiet the whole way up. The control room had multiple synths in it, which wasn't a problem with the two of them and Dogmeat.  
" One of these synth's should have the transmitter on them" Danse looked through the broken wires and body parts of a synth. Juniper looked to the side and saw that one synth had been covering something. She walked over and pushed it over and saw what looked like the transmitter.  
" This is it right?" Juniper tossed it over to him and smirked.  
" Well done, let's take the service elevator out of here." Danse turned and pressed the elevator call button.  
 _Is he sore at me?  
_ Juniper walked over and got into the elevator with him and Dogmeat.  
" Going down" The elevator made it's descent and she looked over at him. She could only see the edge of his profile.  
" Did I upset you, earlier? I didn't mean to roast you" Danse looked over and looked surprised.  
" No not at all, I just" He looked away, " I'm not use to the attention." The last part he said a little quieter.  
 _Oh god, I made him feel worse  
_ Juniper shut her eyes and tossed her head back. The elevator stopped and they both walked out back into the wasteland.  
" That could have gone more smoothly, but it's done with now." Danse turned to face her, and she cocked her head.  
" It could have, but we're both alive aren't we?" They were interrupted by the sound of thunder in the distance. Danse looked over towards the road.  
" We should try to make it back, this wasn't part of the plan. However there's no location that's as close as the station from this point." Juniper sighed,  
" Alright let's get going, It's going to start raining pretty soon." Danse nodded and they started briskly walking back towards the Police station. When they got back, Danse told her he had something to talk to her about later. Juniper didn't feel like she belonged with the rest of them downstairs, so she headed to the roof. Dogmeat fell asleep next to one of their lanterns so she let him be. The roof was quiet, and the rain had mostly passed by them already. Juniper walked over to the staircase to the vertibird pad, and sat down. She popped in Scribe Haylen's holotape she can found and listened.  
 _Poor girl, I wonder where she's even from  
_ Juniper untied her bun and let her curls start to form up with the slight mist of the rain. Juniper ejected Haylen's tape and put it in her tape pocket. Her hand felt the smoothness of one of the tapes and she swallowed hard. The smoothest of all of her tapes was one, that Al had made for her before the bombs fell. She only listened to it every so often, because it was already hard enough to make the adjustment to this new life. Juniper popped the tape in and leaned her head to the side of the railing. The tape started and she heard Shaun's little fingers grabbing at the tape recorder. She smiled and pressed her fingers together remembering how small his grip was.  
" I Don't think Shaun and I have to tell you how Brilliant you are, but we will anyway won't we?" Shaun cooed in the distance, and Al cleared his throat.  
" Your an incredible mother and I can't wait to watch your big heart grow even bigger raising our beautiful baby boy." Juniper smirked and shut her eyes, imagining his face.  
" You've always been so patient, and even with Shaun you're like a saint I'm a little jealous of that. It's been amazing starting our lives together with Shaun and I know the best years are to come." Juniper's lip started to tremble, like it always did at this part.  
" Things will change, I'll join the civilian work force or maybe I'll just a house husband ha!" Juniper scoffed, and felt a single tear roll down her cheek.  
" But remember not matter how hard things get, were doing this for our family. Now let's say bye, can you say bye bye Shaun?" Shaun gurgled in the background,  
" We love you honey!" The tape clicked and ejected, and Juniper kept her eyes shut for awhile and took a deep breath.  
 _They can't stay shut forever, eventually I have to face the world again.  
_ Juniper opened her eyes and checked the time, 11: 47. It was late enough that the rest of them should be in bed by now. She got up and made her through the door and downstairs. Danse waited until she had shut the door and looked around the side of the building. He didn't know what to think, she was really telling the truth. To make it worse, she had a husband and a child. Where were they?  
 _Would she even join if I asked her?  
_ Danse sighed and recomposed himself and walked back into the station. Juniper had gotten cornered by the old machines at the end of the stairway by Rhys. He had his arm against the wall and she didn't back down from his stance. Her chin was rigid and raised higher than normal.  
" You know, I really hate your guts. You just waltz in here and steal the show" Rhys looked and smelled drunk, Danse could smell it from over 10 feet away. Rhys licked his lips and held onto her Suit's zipper.  
" I heard about you, Pre-war huh? Don't make em like they use to" He snickered and his hand made it less than a inch before Juniper held a knife next to his groin. Danse was halfway over to them when he saw the knife.  
" Look, I'm not from these parts but I know an Egg when I see one" Rhys terrified face was replaced by confusion, Juniper pressed the knife closer and stared him down.  
" I don't care if you're stupid, I'm not some conquest. Neither is that girl Haylen." she looked over towards a passed out Haylen on the sleeping bag closest to the door. Rhys retracted his arm and scoffed, he stumbled into the next room and fell face first onto an open sleeping bag. Danse looked back over at Juniper and watched her chest deflate.  
" I don't belong here" she said in passing and walked back over to the front desk and started to pack her things. Danse walked over to the doorway and looked at her.  
" Rhys can be a challenge but, he's never acted in that way before." Juniper stopped and looked over at him.  
" Did you watched that whole thing" She looked angry, and her normally pulled back hair was wet and wildly curled around her freckled face. Danse walked closer,  
" I was about to intervene, when I saw the knife. Although Rhys is under my command, he had no right to do what he did" Danse searched her face, but wasn't sure what he was looking for.  
Juniper laughed, and Danse realized he was never going to understand this woman.  
" Thank you for not intervening actually, I hope I taught him a lesson. But from the looks of this fellow he looks unteachable" She smiled and looked back at her pack. Danse reached out and held onto her arm. Juniper looked up suspiciously.  
" I actually wanted to propose something to you." Juniper raised her arched eyebrows and turned to face him.  
" Let's hear it then." She crossed her arms, Danse had never been treated this way in his life.  
" Ahem, I wanted to ask you to join the Brotherhood of Steel. Instead of scraping by, struggling to survive out here you'd be able to thrive. Correct me if I'm wrong but, were you the only one that was unfrozen?" Juniper's eyes darkened  
" Why do you ask?"  
" I heard you listening to that tape" Juniper started to turn red and turned back to her pack.  
" I don't want to upset you, but the Brotherhood of Steel may be able to help you." Danse's voice softened, Juniper sighed.  
" Someone while I was frozen shot my husband and took my son." Danse frowned and his brow furrowed deeply.  
" I've been trying to understand this place, and learn more about it before I went charging into Diamond city to find him. I'd like to join but I have to check there first, please understand" Juniper reached out and touched his arm. Danse looked down and felt the heat from her hand, and his mind went blank. The way she looked at him, he felt like he had no chance of saying no.  
"I understand, I'm going to grant you the rank of initiate. For everything you did for this unit, We're going to be waiting for reinforcements, or a radio signal. For the time being, we might be here for awhile." Juniper smiled and picked up her pack.  
" You should at least get some sleep, Rhys won't be a problem." Danse straightened his back,  
" If needed I'll stand guard for a while to ensure your safety." Juniper raised her eyebrows.  
" There's no need, I'll sleep in the side room on the couch." She made her way into the room and got settled in. Danse walked over to the only open sleeping bag which was next to the doorframe of the adjacent room. Juniper grabbed her casual clothes, she only used them when she could actually sleep safely. Danse unzipped from his full body uniform and ran his fingers through his hair. Juniper walked over to the door and peered out. Danse looked over surprised by her presence.  
" Thanks for everything today, we make a good team." Juniper smiled, and looked up at his long dark locks.  
" For some reason I thought you were bald, I'm glad I was wrong." Smirking she turned and walked back over to the couch to get some sleep. Danse stood there, and he touched his head.  
" Why would I appear bald." He got down and settled into his sleeping bag, falling asleep feeling confused.


	5. Where's Nicky Though?

Juniper wasn't prepared for the sight that was central Boston. Buildings were torn apart by centuries of looting and not to mention to bombs. Piles of garbage were thrown into the streets, and paint was flaking off of the bricks. The shadows of the buildings loomed over her slender figure, even in the rising sunlight. Security officers circled the upcoming blocks, which meant she was close. Juniper took a deep calming breath.  
 _Shaun even if you're not here, someone must have seen you. Someone will know where to find you, please hold on sweetie.  
_ Her face tensed up and formed her famous "brooding face" as Al use to call it. Her jaw clenched and her body language was cold and severe. Her grey eyes pierced through anyone who happened to cross them.  
" Diamond city's just up ah-" Juniper met eyes with him while she passed the guard, and he fell silent.  
 _I have no idea what this place will be like, for all I know it could be the hardest place I've been.  
_ Some of the guards were fighting a pack of super mutants just around the corner and she opted to keep walking. When Juniper got close enough she heard a woman yelling, the yelling got louder as she followed the signs.  
" You can't just lock me out, Danny I live here." The raven haired woman raised her voice into the intercom.  
" Danny open the goddamn door!" She threw her hands down and clenched her fists.  
" Sorry Piper, I'm just doing my job." The male voice paused.  
" I have strict orders not to let you in" The woman threw her hands up at his last comment.  
" Oh yeah protecting the Diamond city from the scary reporter!" Her hat almost flew off with how much she was storming around. Juniper walked closer to the gate, and heard the woman try and steady her breath.  
" Sorry Piper the whole town's in a tizzy and the mayor is livid, says your article is full of lies." He sounded sad but that didn't stop the woman.  
" Danny Sullivan open the goddamn door, you can't just lock me out. I LIVE HERE." The intercom fell silent and piper grunted.  
" Come on, open up" Piper out of the corner of her eyes caught Juniper's glance and flagged her down.  
" Hey you want in Diamond city right?" She grinned and waved her over. Juniper walked closer and gave her a one over. She had a long red coat and appeared to be a reporter.  
 _Do they still have those?  
_ Piper's hazel eyes flashed a dark green, and she grinned and shushed Juniper.  
" What's that you're a trader, from Quincy? Enough stock to keep Myra running for weeks, no months?" Juniper relaxed a bit and grinned back at Piper.  
" Alright, I get it Piper, I'll open the gate geez." Danny sighed and a loud rumble filled the empty streets. Piper looked back over at Juniper.  
" Better head in before he catches on." Juniper shook her head and moved backwards.  
" Oh no after you, Miss reporter." This caught Piper off guard, and she laughed and shook her head.  
" Am I that obvious?" She made her way inside the gate and Juniper followed behind her.  
A portly man looked furious as they walked through the ticket lanes.  
"You, how?" He look dumbfounded  
"Piper who let you back inside? I'll not have you coming back here and filling this town full of lies, with that blasphemous so called paper of yours." That seemed to strike a nerve with Piper.  
" I ought to have the printer scrapped for parts"  
" Ooo Tyrant mayor shuts down the press, let's ask the newcomer what she thinks." Juniper felt the heat of all the eyes in the room turned to her.  
" Do you support the press?" Piper locked eyes with her and stared her down.  
"Always believed in freedom of the press" Juniper grinned at Piper and she returned the grin.  
The mayor took his eyes from Piper and turned to fully look at Juniper. Mayor McDonough looked her up and down and stopped to admire her curves. She shuddered in response.  
" Sorry to get you caught up in this whole mess, no you" He stopped and held eye contact his her breasts.  
" You look like diamond city material." Juniper leaned forward and made eye contact with the mayor, which startled him and he cleared his throat.  
" Welcome to Diamond city the great green jewel of the Commonwealth. Best place to come relax, maybe settle down and spend your money."  
" Emphasis on money" Piper leaned over and whispered not so quietly at Juniper. The mayor glared at her and look back at Juniper smiling.  
" I'm sure your city's a great place" Juniper answered back, attempting courtesy. Piper scoffed  
" Yeah best house of cards in the Commonwealth" Her eyes darkened  
" Until the wind blows" after that she looked away, caught up in a distant thought. The mayor waved her away.  
" Was there anything in particular you came here for?" At that, Juniper felt her chest tighten.  
" I'm looking for someone" The mayor leaned in closer,  
" A missing person, who are you looking for?" His smile faded and he looked suspicious.  
Juniper looked from Piper back to the mayor,  
 _Why is this so hard to say out loud?  
_ " My uh" Her voice shook  
" My baby boy, he's less than a year old." Juniper broke eye contact from the mayor, Piper looked saddened.  
" Wait your son is missing?" Piper in an instant turned back to the mayor and glared at him.  
" So Diamond city security is going to ignore a desperate mother's cry for help." The mayor looked frazzled, and looked back and forth a Piper and Juniper.  
" I'm sure we can find somebody that can help you out Miss. Unfortunately our security team can't investigate every case he have at our doorstep" The mayor backed away a bit, trying to exist the conversation.  
" This is ridiculous!" Piper started in again,  
" Diamond city can't spare just one officer, to look into a case?" Around the lobby, officers on and off duty were talking amongst themselves. Piper motioned towards the officers reading old comic books.  
 _She's good  
_ Juniper couldn't help but grin at her tenacity, Piper caught her breath and went on.  
" Why dosen't Diamond city ever look into missing person cases, we have enough of them don't we?" The mayor turned his back on Piper, and went to walk away but stopped.  
" I've had enough of this Piper, consider you and that sister of yours on notice" He couldn't have sounded more cold, but Piper brushed it off.  
" Yeah keep talking Mcdonough, that's all you're good for" Piper turned her attention back onto Juniper.  
" Hey if you have a minute later, stop by my office. I have a really good idea for an article and it might help you out finding your son" Piper reach out and held onto Juniper's shoulder and gave a sympathetic smile.  
" Yeah of course, thanks for getting me in" Piper started to walk away and Juniper sighed.  
" What do you think boy?" Juniper turned and stroked Dogmeat's fur, he barked and licked her arm.  
 _I just don't know what to expect after that, I'm so anxious about just walking up the stairs.  
_ " Common, brooding face" Juniper took a deep breath and walked up the stairs into Diamond city. The whole field had been converted into a thriving and lively town, people loitered around the shops lining the inside entrance. A young girl waved papers as Juniper walked by.  
" Let me guess, Piper's sister?" The girl looked over and sized her up.  
" Yeah what's it to you lady?" Juniper held back laughing, this was definitely her sister.  
" Could I get a paper?" Juniper started digging to get caps, and the girl simply handed her one.  
" Here you can just have it." The girl got back onto her box and started to wave a paper around again. After walking around and getting a feel for the neighborhood and eavesdropping on some of the citizens, a neon light caught her eye.  
 _A detective? Not what I was expecting but I'll take it  
_ Juniper walked through the door and saw a young woman going through mountains of paper work. She looked overworked, and had bags under her eyes.  
" Excuse me miss?" The woman looked up at her and shook her head.  
" Another stray in from the rain, sorry you're too late we're closed." Her shoulder slumped forward as she sat down, her hands ran through her updo trying to slick back the many pieces coming out.  
" I won't take much of your time please it's important" Juniper walked closer and looked at the woman searching for an answer. She scoffed and leaned backwards  
" Don't you get it he's gone."  
Juniper sighed and stood up straighter, trying to appear more confident.  
" I can help you find him, If you'll tell me where you last saw him" Juniper watched the woman's expression shift and she looked away.  
" He was investigating a character named Skinny Malone, I can give you the area where he was last seen." She looked reluctant to continue but she also looked desperate.  
" The people Nick was after.. they're not good people. I'm worried about Nick, but I also don't want you ending up dead looking for him." Without thinking Juniper put her hand on the woman's shoulder, she looked up confused.  
"I can handle myself, just give me the location and I'll check it out." She sighed  
" Something tells me you and Nick are going to get along. By the way My name's Ellie." Juniper smiled  
"Juniper, now let's work on getting Nick back." The two women discussed where he was last seen, what the area was like, and what was underneath the hideout, a vault. Juniper didn't dread going there, but she wasn't looking forward to it. Ellie also put the coordinates into her pipboy, while Juniper checked her gear and made notes of what ammo she needed to buy.  
"Before you leave can I asked something?" Ellie almost whispered from across the room, she was still holding onto the pipboy.  
" Sure" Juniper looked up from her list.  
" When you came in here, you said you were looking for a detective." Juniper looked over to the window and watched raindrops slide down the glass.  
" I came here to ask Nick for help finding my son." Elie fell silent for sometime, then walked over and handed Juniper back her pipboy.  
" I'm sorry for asking." Ellie said goodnight and walked upstairs.  
Juniper sighed and leaned against the desk. She fell asleep listening to the rain fall against the tin roof, while Dogmeat Laid next to her. A few hours had gone by when she woke up and decided to leave, before Ellie woke up that morning.  
 _It must have made her uncomfortable, especially after she had lost her temper when we first met  
_ "Come on boy, let's find Nick." Dogmeat barked and ran through the door and Juniper ran after him. He had stopped abruptly by the town center and was growling. She looked up and saw two men standing facing each other, one holding a gun.  
" Please don't do this, we're family" The man without a gun had raised his hands up, while the man with a gun looked frantic.  
" You're not my brother, what did you do with him?" the gun he was holding was shaking. Juniper looked at both of them and side stepped closer trying to get a better view without drawing attention to herself. Diamond city security, had also caught wind of the situation and had started to close in on the two.  
" Kyle please" The other man sounded almost in tears.  
" You're not the real Riley." Kyle put his finger on the trigger and right as he was about to shoot, he was shot straight through his head.  
" KYLE" Riley screamed and dropped to his knees, as Kyle's body fell down with a thud. Blood had shot across to Riley and coated the area where kyle had been standing. Juniper put her hand to her mouth so she wouldn't scream at the sight. A security officer walked over and stood almost on top of the dead body.  
" Listen up, there are no synths in Diamond city. Return to your homes NOW." People looked around at one another and turned away from the scene. Slowly they dispersed and Juniper still stood against a cabinet next to two mannequins. Dogmeat whimpered and nudged her leg.  
 _I feel like I can't move  
_ An officer noticed her and started to make his way towards her.  
 _Shit, Shit, Shit  
_ Juniper stumbled forward when she was finally able to move and the officer only stopped and watched her walk away.  
" That's a good Idea, vault dweller." She turned on the stairs and saw Riley being pushed away, while other officers were carrying Kyle away. She turned around and kept walking.  
 _I'll never let Shaun live here  
_ A few hours had passed and Juniper had made it to Park street station almost without a scratch.

Nick had been this room for weeks, probably. Although he was a synth he still at times like this felt the heavy weight of time, hours went by and he wasn't sure what Skinny Malone was waiting for. He fiddled with his right hand, using a screwdriver to make adjustments to the open circuitry.  
"How you doing in there lil Nicky?" Dino walked up to the window,  
Before he got into it with Dino for the third time today he noticed a shadowy figure walking slowly on the lower levels. Averting his eyes quickly Dino noticed this and went to turn around.  
" You know I saw your name in that little black book ol' Malone's got" He turned back quickly,  
" Not to mention the line that goes through it now, something about being a cheater?" His yellow eyes scanned Dino's horrified face.  
" No He wouldn't! I have to go smooth this over" Dino turned and left, and Nick walked across the room. Within seconds he heard muffled gunfire and a loud thud, then foot steps leading up to the window. The lighting in his cell made it easier to conceal himself,  
" Hey I don't know who you are, but we have about 3 minutes before they realize muscle for brains isn't coming back. You should get this door open" He tried to scan the face of the silhouette before it walked over to the terminal. The door opened sooner than he expect and they both walked up to each other in the only light in the room. Nick lit a cigarette and looked up finally seeing his savior and he couldn't be more surprised.  
" As much as I love the reverse Damsel in distress scenario, Question is why did this heroine risk life and limb for an old synth?" He eyed her ginger hair and puzzled expression, slowly she lowered her pistol.  
"It's complicated, I'm not sure how long they've been gone, or even where they may be." Juniper tried not to laugh because it sounded so absurd, she took off the glasses she had been using when she needed to see something more carefully. The synth exhaled smoke and smirked,  
" Well I've done jobs with less, For some reason nice and simple never makes it rounds in my field. I've been stuck in here for weeks" He looked away with gloomy eyes, Juniper could tell the weeks took their tole on him.  
" Turns out the runaway daughter I was looking for, she wasn't kidnapped. She's skinny Malone's new flame, and to top it off she's got a mean streak." Nick tossed what was left of his cigarette on the metal floor and looked back up at her.  
"Anyway, you got troubles I'm glad to help but this ain't the time. Let's blow this joint then we'll talk, follow me." Nick started to walk through the door and she walked past him and grabbed all the holotapes on the overseer's desk, along with the bobblehead. She caught him looking and cleared her throat.  
" These usually, have uh pretty valuable information" She quickly got out her pistol and walked past him out the door. Nick watched her german shepherd trot after her.  
While they were walking He began to fill her in on all the details of Skinny Malone, Juniper listened and didn't say anything.  
" Wait there's someone up ahead, how do you want to do this?" He crouched at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at her. She crouched next to him and looked through the doorway, and followed the movement of the nearest triggerman. Without a word she aimed and took the first one out, followed by the second and the third.  
 _Well what do you know  
_ Nick stood up and walked up next to her,  
" Well that's one way to get the coolant pumping" Juniper shrugged and smiled back at him,  
" Slocum Joe usually does it for me, but that was ages ago" She kept walking and Nick raised what would be an eyebrow and followed her. They walked through the cafeteria area, and started down a hallway until they came across a door that wouldn't open. Nick brushed past Juniper and started trying to fiddle with the door.  
" So hard and loud is your style huh? I feel bad for whoever has to clean up those floors." Juniper leaned against the wall and watched his hands at work.  
" Whoever cleans those floors is probably at least 200 years late." Nick looked up and watched her smile back at him. He hadn't really seen her eye colour because of the lighting, he looked back down at the lock.  
 _This is not just any dame  
_ " Hell of alot easier when the locks on the other side, almost got it"  
Seconds later the door slid open and Nick walked through it with Juniper and Dogmeat behind him. He got ahead of himself after a few empty hallways and started to walk faster.  
Juniper watched Nick go through a doorway and a Triggerman out of nowhere follow right behind him. She raised her pistol right as he started to winding his swing up, she missed his head and accidentally shot his arm clear off. His bat fell to the floor and quickly she tried not to miss this time.  
 _Jesus  
_ His bat was covered in his own blood, and Juniper had to ignore it and push past him. Nick turned around to see her darkened face, the more he saw of her the more questions he had.  
The next few triggermen didn't even get one shot on Nick, Juniper from behind him covered his every move.  
"Anyone you walk away from?" Juniper tensed up and walked past him to the kitchen area through the next hallway.  
She ran over to the rolling cart and grabbed the top plate of the stack.  
" These are clean plates, I haven't seen any for months." She tilted her head, and looked at Dogmeat.  
" Okay more like years, but still" She rubbed Dogmeat's ear and started trying to take as many plates as possible.  
" So our heroine has a thing for antiques?" Nick picked up one of the plates and looked it over.  
" It's a long story but, things like this make life easier." Juniper used some old clothing she had found to wrap the plates, so they wouldn't break. Nick watched her admiration of something so simple.  
 _Hopefully she's not just missing a few screws_  
" Sorry, let's get going." She pulled her pack back on and gestured for Nick to go ahead.  
" Synths first" Juniper tried not to smile and keep a straight face.  
" Smart ass" Nick smirked and walk into the next hallway, that lead to more stairs.  
 _How many goddamn stairs are there?  
_ Juniper pulled out her pistol when she heard footsteps and looked over at Nick. He did the same and they carefully walked upstairs.  
" Shouldn't have crossed us." A dark haired triggerman ran to the foot of the stairs and shot wildly at the three of them. Nick took him out and he slumped to the floor.  
" Surprised you let me get a shot in-" Juniper was holding her left shoulder and biting her lip.  
" Hey, you alright, kid?" Nick walked over to her quickly trying to see the damage.  
Juniper laughed and carefully pulled her pack off,  
" I haven't been called that in forever" She rummaged through her bag and grabbed a stimpack and thrusted it into her shoulder.  
 _How many times am I going to have to sew up this suit?  
_ Juniper sighed and leaned her back against the staircase wall  
" Look, I know I said the question could wait but, I need to know what your angle is." Nick Valentine sat across from her on the staircase and studied her.  
She looked at him, and readjusted her stray hairs back into her bun.  
" You've got nothing to worry about from me coach" When he still looked suspicious Juniper slumped a little bit.  
" If you want my life story it's going to have to wait, I'll answer any questions you have later at your office." Juniper started to get up and Nick walked over and gave her a hand.  
" Sorry for the suspicion, In my line of work you need to be on your toes. Skinny Malone must be up ahead, name's uh ironic. But don't let that fool you, these guys mean business" Juniper nodded and Nick walked ahead of her into another room. Finally this room had a door, which Nick began to unlock.  
" Get ready for anything" Nick said over his shoulder. Juniper got distracted by a Vault 114 suit and threw it into her pack. She looked up in time to see the door opening, and she saw "Skinny" Malone and what she assumed was the Moll.  
" Nicky, sneaking into my home, and shooting my men. Do you know how much this will set me back?" Juniper eyed Malone and moved her finger to the trigger. Nick laid his hand onto her arm and she looked up at him. They made eye contact and he looked back at Malone.  
" Next time tell your two-timing dame to write home more often." The girl in the dress scoffed and looked angry.  
" What you mad you got beat up by a girl" Her accent was the heaviest Juniper had heard in awhile. " I'll just run back home to daddy shall I?" She held her bat and gave a wicked smile.  
Skinny Malone stepped closer,  
" This ain't the old neighborhood anymore, In this vault I'm the king of the castle. I ain't letting no private dick, shut us down. No not after we got such a good thing going." The girl rolled her eyes and glared at Malone.  
" I told you we should have just killed him, but you kept blabbing about the old times, what crap."  
" DARLA, I'm handlin this. Skinny Malone's always got things under control."  
" Tell that to your slacks" Juniper mumbled, Nick cleared his throat trying to mask a laugh.  
Darla finally stared down Juniper,  
" Oh yeah what about this lady, bet Valentine brought her here to rub us all out" She shifted her weight nervously and kept ahold of her bat.  
" That wasn't the plan originally but hey, it's starting to sound tempting" Juniper smirked at Darla who furrowed her brow, Nick sighed and Skinny Malone looked back and forth between the two women.  
" Hey I'm in charge here, you got something to say, you say it to me" Juniper looked at Malone,  
" You said you and Nick knew each other?" She his expression shift to a nostalgic one  
" Yeah, This troublemaker back in the day, was always into my business. Must have done this dance a hundred times, enemies are the closest thing you get to friends in these parts." His eyes darkened and he lifted his tommy gun back up.  
"Look, quit stallin' you gonna talk, talk." Juniper inhaled and put on her best intimidating look,  
" Look this is all just a misunderstanding, you let us walk away now we won't come back" The confidence was pouring out of her and Malone must have felt it.  
" You come in here and shoot up my crew and expect me ugh, forget it. You're lucky I owe him for that time back in the Quarry." Juniper shot Nick a glance and he smirked.  
 _Typical dick,  
_ " I'm gonna give you until the count of ten before I forget my good manners, and start shootin up the place!" Darla let her bat almost hit the floor,  
" What are you doin Skinny? Kill em!" She looked genuinely sad, and Malone's expression softened when he looked at her.  
" No Darla, they get one chance to leave, Skinny Malone is puttin' his foot down"  
Darla scoffed,  
" My mother was right all you mobsters are just talk" Darla turned and started to run to the door, Malone looked sad but he started to count.  
" We better get outta here fast" Nick warned and Juniper nodded and followed Darla.

When Juniper finally opened the doors to the Boston Common she inhaled the semi fresh air. Still better than the smell of that vault. She stretched her arms out and watched Nick come out behind her.  
"Ah, look at that commonwealth sky, ominous but anything feels inviting after that. Thanks for getting me out by the way but, how did you know where to find me? Not many people knew where I went." Nick turned his attention to her.  
" You're secretery, Elle she sent me" Nick smiled  
" She did, did she? I should give her a raise."Juniper looked around, weary of being so out in the open.  
" You said something about a missing person, disappearing without a trace." Juniper looked back over to him and nodded.  
" Look I want you to come back to my office in Diamond city. Give me all the details, besides I think you've earned a chance to come clear your head."  
" Alright lead the way Nick" Juniper raised her pistol from the holster and motioned towards Diamond city.  
" Alright let's move, and fast" Nick turned and started to almost jog towards the city.  
" Let's go boy!" Dogmeat barked and ran after Nick.  
 _This feeling...I feel like I'm finally getting closer to Shaun. Al I know you must have been watching over me in the staircase.  
_ Juniper looked up at the stars and took it all in. The sky for the first time in weeks didn't look so dark, or ominous. While she started to jog after the two of them, she listened to every tip and advice Nick gave her.


	6. Changes

**Little bit of smut at the end, If that's not your thing it's only about a paragraph :3**

Juniper watched Elle reuniting with Nick, and it reminded her of something.  
 _When Al finally came home  
_ She blinked the tears away and fingered at her wedding ring,  
" You keep laughing at death one day, death will laugh back" Elle scolded  
" Not when I have friends to back me up" Nick looked over at the doorway.  
Juniper looked up and saw both of them staring at her.  
" Oh, uh I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress. What can I say?" Elle looked confused and Nick laughed. Elle walked over to Juniper and held out a small bag..  
" I know we never talked about a reward, but You saved Nick and this agency. Here it's not much but I'm throwing in a little something extra." Elle smiled and Juniper looked past the cap stash, and saw a fedora and a worn trench coat. She looked back up at Elle,  
" Nick could always use a partner, especially one with skills such as yourself." Juniper must have looked panicked because Nick chimed in quickly.  
"Whoa, slow down there Elle one case at a time, our new friend here needs our help first. Here come on over and take a seat." Nick sat down at the desk and Elle looked sad but went to grab her notepad. Juniper walked over to the worn chair and sat down hesitantly.  
" I know this maybe painful, but the devil is in the details. Tell me everything about what happened." Nick's eyes flashed serious yellow,  
" We're looking for a...baby, my baby Shaun." Nick looked surprised  
" He's less than a year old..why would anyone take him?" Juniper swallowed hard  
Nick leaned back in his chair and looked off to the side.  
"That's a good question, why your family? Why take an infant, someone would have to take on all that care, and babies need quite a bit of it." Juniper looked down at his hands folded into each other.  
 _That's right he still wasn't even on solid food yet_  
"What else can you tell me?"  
"We were in a vault when it happened vault 111, some sort of cryo facility. Northwest from here, by Sanctuary." Elle looked up and almost dropped her notepad, Nick had a similar reaction but then a sort of ah ha moment happened.  
" So, you were on ice, more importantly you were in an underground sealed facility. That's alot of obstacles to take just one person. Is there anything else, what happened to your husband?" Nick had been eyeing her wedding band, and Juniper abruptly stopped moving it on her finger. She smiled and sighed.  
"My husband Alfonso, he was...murdered. He was just trying..to keep Shaun safe." Juniper felt drops on her hands, she didn't realize she was crying. Elle walked over and put a hand on her shoulder.  
" I'm so sorry, we can help you." Nick looked at the two of them and ran his good hand over his jaw and chin. Dogmeat put his head on her lap and whimpered up at her, Juniper smiled and scratched behind his ear.  
" So we're talking about a group of cold hearted killers, but they waited until something went wrong to resort to violence." Nick leaned forward and put his arms on the desk.  
" That confirms it, this isn't a random kidnapping. These people had an agenda, lot's of people in the commonwealth take people. Raiders, the Gunners, Super mutants, and there the Institute."  
 _Wait the institute? Don't they make synths or something?  
_ " You don't think, the institute did this do you?" Juniper watched his eyes flicker away.  
" They are the boogeyman of the Commonwealth, something goes wrong, everyone blames them. Can you blame them? Before their synths destroyed whole towns now the newest models can impersonate a human without the synth even knowing what they are." Juniper kept a ping of guilt at the mention of what he was, but Nick just kept going.  
" No one knows why they do it, or what they're trying to accomplish. Not even me a discarded prototype." Elle looked away and Juniper could feel the pain in his words.  
" You're a prototype?" Nick shrugged,  
" As far as I know, and I'm the only one. The other's are either dumb as rocks, or almost human. I'm somewhere imbetween."  
 _How horrible, people already fear synths so badly here. What has he had to go through?  
_ " Either way, I need to find my son." Juniper tried to change the subject.  
" Right we're getting sidetracked, speculation will get us nowhere fast. What did these kidnappers look like?" At that Elle was ready to jot down every detail.  
Juniper started to describe the woman in a hazard suit, Nick was surprised at that since those suits are apparently highly sought after. Then Juniper started to describe the man that killed her husband, she knew every detail by heart. His voice, his clothes, and his face.  
" He had a scar across his left eye, after he killed my husband he walked right up to me" Nick's eyes shot so far open they looked like they were going to short circuit.  
" It couldn't be...Did they say the name Kellogg at all?" Juniper thought back and couldn't remember.  
" Who is he? Do you think he has Shaun?" She watched Nick think long and hard.  
" It's way too big of a coincidence, Elle what note do we have about the Kellogg case?"  
Elle looked through her note and smiled excited.  
" The description matches, down to every detail. No one ever knows who his employer is though, even though he runs all the dangerous merc jobs."  
" He bought a house in town here didn't he? There was a kid with him too."  
" That's right and the kid was about 10 years old, that was awhile ago though." Elle tried to remember more but Juniper couldn't hear her anymore.  
 _Oh my god, Al he could be 10? We missed so much of his life, He's not going to remember me at all. All of our plans, has he had to grow up here?  
_ " I've missed so much of his life, that boy...It's Shaun isn't it?" Juniper searched both of them for an answer.  
" Don't jump the gun on me here, last I remember an infant and a 10 year old that's a 9 year difference." He sounded more worried, but was trying to be firm.  
" They disappeared a while back, but we can still go poke around his house to search for clues." Nick got up and walked over to the door.  
" You two be careful, security doesn't really go over there but still." Elle looked worried as Juniper got up and Nick held the door open for her.  
" I always am" with that Nick and Juniper started walking to Kelloggs house.

Nick was walking ahead of her and the morning sunrise was almost blinding. When he got out of earshot from the nearest person getting up to start their daily routine he started to talk more about Kellogg.  
" Eveything I've ever dug up about him has been bad news, he's a professional. That means no loose ends ever" His amber eyes glowed back at her grey ones.  
" Expect for you, all of his enemies are dead." Juniper felt her chest tighten.  
They walked up the stairs and Juniper watched everyone in the city, she saw all the children walking into the makeshift school building.  
 _Did Shaun goto school there? Did he walk up these stairs everyday?  
_ This was the closest she'd ever felt to her son since he was in her arms, and It felt comforting.  
" Hey, It's the last house up here" Nick was already up the stairs and watching her.  
Nick walked up the door, and turned around.  
" I'll give this a try, and if I can't get it open maybe you can." Nick crouched down and started to fiddle with it. After a few minutes he sighed,  
" That's one hell of a lock, here you try" Juniper walked over as he got up and out of the way, but she had just as much trouble.  
" Lock's really strong." Juniper grabbed the handle and put her head against the door.  
" Go try and find the key in the mayor's office, I'll keep at it." Nick put his hand on the handle, and looked at Juniper. She saw all of his features up close for the first time, he just kept looking at the lock on the handle.  
" The mayor's office is just over there in front of the town entrance." He broke her train of thought,  
" Right I'll go see what I can do" Juniper quickly trailed off and Nick sighed in relief.  
 _Not sure If I could get use to all this female attention,  
_  
Juniper reached the top of the platform and heard a familiar voice.  
" I bet if I was the institute the mayor would come running out of his office" Piper was arguing with what looked like the mayor's secretary.  
"Honey, You'd get a man's attention more easily if you used sweeter words and yelled a bit less." This woman had the typical bitchy haircut that Juniper couldn't stand. Before the war and after.  
" That reminds me of an article I'm writing now" Piper walked from one side of the desk to the other.  
" About an air headed blonde having an affair with a certain mayor." It took a few seconds for this to process in the woman's brain but when it did she turned the color of a Tato.  
Juniper walked up behind the scene and Piper turned and saw her.  
" Oh it's you, What brings you to the mayor's humble office?" Juniper crossed her arms and smiled,  
" Depends on what the press is doing here first" Piper walked across the room and told Juniper about the courier that come and goes so quickly no one can ever ask him anything. The same person each time, and nobody recognizes him from any caravan or settlement. Her eyes darkened,  
" After this, the mayor won't be able to keep hiding the truth" The secretary was trying to listen and when she couldn't she told Piper to leave.  
" Hmmp I was just leaving anyway, see you later Junie" Piper winked and walked to the elevator and was gone.  
 _Junie?  
_ Juniper had success with the secretary, Geneva. After she told her, about Shaun the woman looked like she was moved almost to tears.  
" Your baby's lucky to have a mother like you, most mother nowadays aren't like that." She looked off into the distance and started to blink more than normal.  
" I'm just going to leave this here, good luck finding your son. I mean that" With that she got up and walked away.

Nick saw Juniper speeding up the stairs with Dogmeat and he knew she got the key.  
" Alright you do the honors" Juniper nodded and quickly opened the door.  
Right when she opened the door the smell hit her, stale cigar, and stagnant air.  
" Take a look around, He must have left something behind." Nick started to look around the first floor, and Juniper started to remember something.  
 _You can't just do whatever you want! Not if you want us to keep paying for all of these excursions. You're all over the television, we can't just keep paying reporters not to put our name into the papers._  
Juniper looked down at the tv, and crouched. She ran her hand along the bottom near the dials, and she looked at the screen and saw her reflection. Within an instant she started to remember what her mother looked like.  
 _Bleached platinum hair, to cover up the greys. Skinny petite figure from when she was in the movies, and traveled everywhere. Her skin was pale, she kept out of the sun to prevent any more wrinkles. She was smoking using a cigarette holder, which always made her look nastier._  
She looked at the speaker part of the machine and tried to remember what her father looked like.  
" Did you check the desk over there?" Nick interrupted her and just like that, her small window into her memories faded.  
" Good catch Dick" Juniper mumbled, a little annoyed. She saw a wire, and followed it to a button.  
" Show me, Mercenary secret room for 500!" Juniper pointed her hands to the left then wall slide open and she gasped. Her mouth could have dropped to the floor.  
" That's one way to hide a room" Nick smirked and walked through the door.  
" Be careful you don't know what's in there" Juniper rushed over and examined the room.  
" Look at all of this, it's like Christmas for a merc." Nick looked through the shelves and Juniper walked over to the cigar box.  
" That smell...San Francisco Sunlights" She picked up the cigar and felt it through her fingertips.  
" Interesting brand, won't lead us anywhere on there own though." Juniper kept looking at them and then looked at Dogmeat, he was spinning in circles by the door.  
" What's with the hard look, say something" Nick had a cigarette in his hand and looked impatient.  
" Could Dogmeat track him down? These already have an intense aroma, It must be even worse for him" Nick looked over at him and nodded.  
" Some dogs in the commonwealth have been known to track a man for miles. He looks like he may have already picked up the scent" Dogmeat whined and scratched at the door. Juniper started to walk over to the door and Nick grabbed her by the arm.  
" Look I know this is personal business, so if you have to face Kellogg on your own, or if you want me to go.." He trailed off and Juniper put her hand on his right hand.  
" Thank you for helping me, I'm going to go see where he ends up being. Afterwards the place looks a little gruesome, I'll come back and get you but only if you want to that is." Nick was still looking at her hand on his.  
 _No one has ever touched this hand, except for me. It's the part of me that can't hide the fact that I'm a synth  
_ " You've helped me get back on my feet and back to the agency. I'd help you come hell or high water." He smirked at her and she smiled back.  
" I'll keep in touch." She squeezed his hand and quickly walked out the door.  
" Good luck kid" Nick managed to say before the door shut behind her.

After finding a few more Cigars and bloody bandages while on the trail of Kellogg, she started to get worried. The farther out of the city she got the harder enemies were to handle, even with Dogmeat. The giant Yao Guai, was a first for her, and it was almost as bad as the deathclaw she faced back at Concord.  
 _I'll just figure out where he is, and come back with reinforcements, if I have to.  
_ Dogmeat stopped suddenly and Juniper almost tripped over him, then she saw it.  
" What the hell is this place..?" She looked at the huge building surrounded by turrets and guard lights. Whenever she tried to get close the turrets started to fire right away, without a long ranged weapon it was impossible to get to them. Juniper wasn't going to let Dogmeat get hurt either, so she decided to head back to Sanctuary to drop off a few things and check in on Preston.  
 _Oh god I hope there okay,_

Preston was patrolling when he saw her walking up the bridge, it had been over a week.  
"General!" Preston slung his musket over his shoulder and went running to meet her.  
" Pres! Whoa!" Right as she said his name he had grabbed her and lifted her up.  
" Sorry, I just have been worried." Preston put her down and stroked Dogmeat, Juniper looked around Sanctuary. Preston tried not to let his embarrassment show,  
 _I can't believe I just ran up and grabbed onto her, she's the general now..._  
" All of the lamps are lit? Wait how many people have come here since the radio beacon?!" Juniper held her head in amazement, He stood back up and looked down the street.  
" All of the houses that you had made livable again are filled, the generators also have been useful like you said they would be. At first when you told me, you wanted electricity in every house I thought it would be nearly impossible. All the plans you drew up for future settlers have also been highly useful, which reminds me of your house." Preston motioned up the oil lamp lit street towards her old home, when Juniper saw it she was ecstatic.  
" Look at all of those Tato, and Carrot flowers! Wait… did you paint the house?" Juniper looked back and forth at Preston and her house down the street. He nodded and started to walk towards the house, when she ran by him in a second.  
 _Same old General, Wait where's her son?  
_ Preston looked behind him, and saw nobody else coming up the bridge at all. His smile faded and he looked back over to Juniper who was now inspecting all of the flowers happily. He walked over to her, and offered her a hand up.  
" You haven't even seen the inside." Juniper took his hand and got up to see the inside. The coches had been replaced with bigger and cleaner ones, electricity was running through her house too. She didn't want to waste supplies on powering her house when she might not even be there that much. She also wasn't sure if she'd want to bring Shaun back here, but now since he might have grown up in the wasteland she had some second thoughts. Preston walked into the kitchen and opened up a curio and it was stocked full of all sorts of liquor. Juniper bit her bottom lip and smiled.  
" Preston thank you, but this is a little much." She felt guilty as she inspected all of the bottles, he shook his head.  
" Most of this was Codsworth, he told Sturges and me what your house use to look like. Along with a bunch of other details, like the Picket fences magazines he said you hoarded. She looked up and scrunched her forehead up,  
" I did not hoard them! They just would come in the mail every month… and I never threw them away?" She cringed and and Preston started to laugh.  
" Hey Preston, I know it's late and you probably have alot to report to me about the settlements. Could you do me a favor?" Preston looked worried, and Juniper walked over to the the old living room's windows and pulled all the makeshift curtains. She looked around and sighed and flopped onto the couch.  
" I need to talk to you, friend to friend about something important." Preston walked over and sat across from her in the newly refurbished armchair.  
" Anything you need General" Juniper frowned and looked annoyed,  
" Not as a General, as just Juniper." Preston looked nervous,  
" You can tell me anything Juniper." She smiled and got more comfortable, Dogmeat went to the other couch next to the window and was about to fall asleep.  
" Ok, so I went to Diamond city and found the detective agency, turns out he was missing so I went to the vault he was being held in got him out and all, oh and I met a reporter named Piper, she's a total nut, but I feel like we're really similar, oh right Nick, then we went back and I told him all about Shaun and Al, and the kidnapper, turns out he was living in town, and with a 10 year old, so I was super worried it could be Shaun, then we got into his house and found out more and more about him, then Dogmeat tracked his scent and it took almost 2 days of just tracking and we finally found where he was, Here's the tough part, he's in Fort Hagen, Al told me about how fortified that place was before the war, so you know it's going to be insane now right?" Juniper had said so much so fast she felt dizzy, Preston just stared at her and nodded mindlessly.  
" So either, I could get Nick valentine to come back with me, or I could go alone, But that place is so insane, You should have seen it. There's so many turrets and There's no noticeable entrance to get into. I think I need a rifle or someone who's good with long distance shooting." Preston's eyes went dark and he looked away, Juniper leaned in closer and tried to meet his eyes.  
" Pres, I know that look. Do you know somebody? Preston?" Juniper said his name sweetly the second time and He looked annoyed.  
" He's nothing but trouble, and He's an ex Gunner. To make things worse he's been hanging his hat in Goodneighbor. You haven't even been that deep into the commons have you?" Juniper frowned and crossed her arms.  
" That's not fair, I went and saw the swan or whatever that thing is, and I've been all over in the past week." Preston looked surprised,  
" You saw the swan?! What were you thinking going so far into the city?"  
" I don't know how fragile you think I am, But I've been able to take care of myself for awhile now. Beside I'm some General now right? That's what you said, last I heard a General of an army can manage a walk on park street." Juniper was standing up and her voice was getting louder, Preston looked hurt.  
" I'll stay here for the night and make sure everyone is doing alright. After that I'm going to find Goodneighbor, If you want to treat me like a fucking General then let me be one."  
 _No, No, No, I shouldn't have said that  
_ Preston stood up and was standing like he was an army recruit his back was so straight.  
" Understood General, am I dismissed?" He looked back at her with cold eyes waiting for an answer. Juniper looked back at him, the damage was done. For tonight they were done talking.  
" Dismissed." She muttered it quietly, but he still heard it and walked right out the door without another word.  
 _Why can't he just talk to me like a person? He expects me to be a General to the Minutemen but doesn't want me to stray too far? The castle is even farther away..  
_ Juniper sighed and walked over to the curio and took a bottle,  
 _Russian booze roulette, I like these odds.  
_ Juniper had locked all of the doors and every curtain was pulled. She walked over into her bedroom and unzipped her vault suit. It peeled off of her and she shuddered, kicking it into the hallway. She untied her hair and let her filthy hair fall onto her shoulders.  
 _I should t least take a bath  
_ She walked into the bathroom and was met with all new appliances. The bathroom was almost as clean as the day the bombs fell, there was a new bathtub next to the shower and there were two handles.  
 _OH MY GOD, THEY DIDN'T!  
_ Juniper turned the handle and felt the water, slowly hot water started to flow from the tap. She cupped her hands and tossed water onto her dirty face.  
"This is amazing" Juniper put the plug into the bottom, after a few seconds she peeled her under garments off and jumped into the tub. She let it fill to the top, and opened up the bottle of booze.  
 _I feel bad for yelling at him, especially since he did this for me,  
_ She ran her fingers across the water's surface and took a gulp from what tasted like maybe vodka. She cringed and set the bottle to the side of the tub, letting her hair get fully immersed into the water she looked up at her ceiling. Before there were holes all throughout the house, now she searched for them.  
 _Everytime I get use to something, it changes. I know change is the only constant, but I feel like I'm never going to catch up.  
_ She ran her hands along her legs rubbing the dirt that was plastered onto her, even though she wore her suit all the time she still ended up filthy. The suit had started to mean something, people started to know who she was just from seeing it. When she would visit the settlements they knew her right away, she thought about changing but she didn't know what she would wear instead. She finished cleaning her calves and knees and was running her hand inside of her leg.  
Instinctively she closed her eyes and a soft moan escaped her lips. Juniper opened her eyes and looked around, her cheeks were bright red. She leaned back into the tub and ran her hand along the curve of her breast. Her other hand found her sensitive hood, slowly she started to make soft circles with her pointer finger.  
 _It's been so long Nobody's here either,  
_ She opened her eyes just to peek around and kept going. Her moans got more and more intense, while her other hand found her nipple. She thought of Al and how he use to suck on her skin while he worked his way down between her legs. His shaven face always was a bit rough, and she remembered the sting that trailed down her body from it. She bit her lip trying not to scream from being pent up for so long, her eyes opened fast and she looked around the bathroom. She looked all over the floor hoping for something that would work, when she found nothing fell back against the side and slid her finger inside. Juniper shuddered so overcome with both arousal and relief. She worked herself until she felt like she was about to unravel, then she heard a loud knock. She tried to ignore it but it got louder and louder, then it stopped. Juniper started to drain the tub and stood up and reached for a towel.  
" Juniper I'm sorry about earli-" Preston stood in the doorway shocked, Juniper stood there frozen. Preston walked up closer and took her all in. He wasn't wearing his normal minutemen attire, he had a loose white shirt on, without his normal hat. Juniper felt her heart beating so hard it hurt. He reached out for her and just in time she turned away, he still wrapped his arms around her from behind. She should have smelled him from doorway, he reeked of booze.  
" Preston.." Before she could say anything else he leaned his head against her neck and started kissing her softly.  
" You don't even know how I felt, You just left, you could have died" He whispered into her curly ginger hair. Juniper looked across the room and grabbed the worn towel covering her front, Preston tried to turn her so she faced him, he stumbled almost trying.  
" General, no Juniper, I was crazy when you left. Please don't leave me again." He whimpered the last few words, and Juniper pushed him away from her softly.  
" Preston, you need to go home. We can talk about this when youre sober in the morning, I'm sorry I yelled earlier." He looked so hurt it broke her heart, she tied the towel on the side and rubbed his arm, he shook his head and looked at her with his dark eyes.  
" Juniper, " He reached his hand out one more time and she backed away.  
" You don't feel the same do you?" Juniper looked away and shook her head, Preston sighed.  
" Preston, You're like my brother. Don't you see that?" Juniper tried to look him in the eye and he just turned away.  
" I'm sorry General." He ran his hand down his face and stumbled through the hallway, she waited until the door shut softly and she exhaled. Juniper walked to the front door and locked it again and made her way to the bedroom where laid down and looked at the ceiling. She trusted Preston and knew he was a good person, that's why she felt so bad. It wasn't that he was unattractive, but he was never going to see her how she really was. She wasn't just a General and she certainly wasn't a housewife anymore. She was something else.  
 _I don't even know what I am anymore..OH a hole.  
_ She smiled and reached her hand up and pointed a finger at the hole. She looked at her hand and saw the wedding band. He retracted her hand and held onto her ring, slowly she jimmied it off of her finger.  
 _I'm definitely not a housewife anymore._


	7. The Message

**I'm really sorry it took so long, I had this chapter finished months ago and just didn't know what was missing. I also had to hand raise two sets of Sugar glider twins ;^; But anyway here it is, sorry again ;~;**

" I'm not kidding I had the weirdest dream, you were even in it I think" He looked over the counter and out the kitchen window. He looked like he was trying to remember, but it was going to be borderline impossible after how drunk he was last night.

Juniper was trying desperately not to laugh.

 _I couldn't even tell him if I wanted to, You saw me naked, confessed your love, and broke into my house?_

"Today I'm going to make sure everything is set here, the wall is intact and introduce myself to all the newcomers." Juniper leaned against the counter and drank coffee, watching Preston nod and take another bite of his mac and cheese. After what happened last night, it was better than he didn't know if she could help it. He didn't force himself on her, and the thought of him knowing that it wasn't just a dream made her cringe.

" How can you eat that so early in the morning?" Juniper scrunched her nose up and Preston looked up confused.

" Hey, I grew up on this stuff. Besides there's not much to eat out here in the wastes."

" Look we go to all this trouble to grow our own produce, we might as well teach everyone how to use it and cook with it. Codsworth was designed to do this type of thing." Juniper called for him out the side door.

" Coming mum!" He hovered through the door.

" Codsworth, If I made a place for you to cook, sew and perform all of your original tasks, would you show other people how to do those things?" What Juniper always thought were his eyes refocused

" What I'm asking is, I want you to help these people learn how to take care of themselves. Most don't know how to even use the produce they're growing, I'm sure we all can learn something from you." She smiled and watched him hover a bit higher.

" Mum, It would mean the world to me. When can we start production of this building?" Juniper looked at Preston and he put down his spoon.

" If you draw up the plans I can get them to Sturges and we can start gathering supplies later today."

" That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I'll go grab some paper and I'll look for a location."  
Juniper spent most of the morning drawing out plans for the new building kitty corner to hers, across the street. Struges used chalk to outline where each room would go, and how much of the original foundation from the previous house they would use. Later, she decided to create lesson plans on what Codsworth should show them.  
 _I might not even be here when the building's done_

Pangs of guilt ran rampant, and she put down the pencil and looked through the open front door of her house. She watched people walk down the street, most of them were heading back to their assigned task. Sometimes she envied them, they didn't have that much to worry about. Although so many of them had experienced loss, and came here looking for a fresh start they were relatively safe. Juniper hadn't felt safe since she was sitting across from Al talking about Codsworth. She sighed and put her hands onto her head.  
 _I need to get out of here, I'm just not ready to be here again yet._

She put her hand down on the table and looked at the pale line on her ring finger. She kept her ring on a chain now around her neck, unable to fully part with it. There was a certain loneliness that came with not wearing her ring, but it also was too painful to relive the memory of losing Al every time she saw it.

" General?" Preston was in her doorway watching her concerned.  
" Sorry, just have alot of my mind. Did you need something Pres?" She ran her fingers through her curly hair and turned to face him. He sighed and walked into her kitchen.

" I know I can't stop you from going to Goodneighbor, I'm also sorry I made it seem like I didn't have faith in you." Juniper went to say something and he stopped her,

" Sometimes All I can remember is the Juniper I saw struggle to learn how to hold a musket, or the one who didn't know that water has radiation in it. I Know you've learned alot these past months, and I didn't mean to belittle you. Goodneighbor has a reputation, when you go there just be careful. " Juniper sighed and smiled

" Why didn't you say that before!" She reached out and punched him in the arm, he recoiled and looked confused. Soon her alarm clock was going off, and she got up to turn it off in the other room.

" I don't have a watch and I need to keep track of the time somehow. Especially if I have such a full schedule today." Preston started laughing so hard Juniper felt her face turning red.

" Why wouldn't you just scavenge around for a watch. General Juniper of the minutemen, who carries around an alarm clock because she can't find a watch in all of the wasteland. Beep beep beep" Juniper pushed him aside and walked through the doorway.

" I have civic duties to attend to" With that she turned and stomped away, with Preston still laughing. Preston only ever joked when they were alone, she wasn't really sure why.  
 _I guess I do the same thing…_

For the rest of the day Juniper created plans for the next few weeks. Codsworth's school, new buildings for settlers, an area to try and harvest fish from the river, and getting ready to eventually retake the castle. The last was the hardest out of all the plans, not only did they need more people, guns, and medical supplies, they also needed to train all of the new people.

The next morning Juniper repacked her bag and put on her cleaned Vault suit. She'd made sure to comb her hair to make it straight again, the whole tough look is defeated with Shirley Temple curls. She walked through her gate she made in front of the entrance of sanctuary onto the bridge, Preston was standing guard that morning and waved. She knew he was upset she was leaving so soon, but she didn't want to tell him how painful it was to be here, especially knowing Shaun is out there.

"I'll be back soon, take care of everyone!" She waved back and dogmeat barked up at Preston.

" You know I will, be careful out there" He looked more confident than he was the first time she left. Juniper smiled started on her way to Goodneighbor.

" You need to back off, I'm not buying any insurance" Juniper stepped to the side and Finn moved in front of her again. She'd been lost trying to find her way there and now that she was here some dickhead wouldn't leave her alone.

"Pretty thing like you, It'd be a shame if something bad were to happen"

He raised his eyebrows and smirked eyeing her curves. Juniper had, had enough and pulled out her 10mm so quickly he froze.

" Whoa whoa there, let's all just settle down a bit"

A raspy voice came from behind Finn, Juniper looked around him and saw a ghoul. Not just any ghoul but one dressed in a long red trench coat, a tricornered hat, and wearing an american flag as a belt. Juniper stepped back and lowered her gun.

" Is that any way to greet a newcomer to our lovely city?" His dark eyes looked at Finn and he averted the ghoul's gaze.

" Why do you care what happens to her? She's not one of us Hancock" Finn's body tensed up and Hancock walked over to him and put an arm around him.

" I'll be the judge of that, now just be on your way." Hancock smiled at Finn and he shrugged off his arm.

" You're gettin soft Hancock, someday we'll have a new mayor." Finn did the same over zealous smirk, Hancock forced a smile and got closer to him again.

" Listen up Finn," Finn leaned in closer and Hancock pulled a hunting knife on him and stabbed him right in the ribs.

" Jesus.." Juniper sighed and looked around and saw a husky woman with her head shaved smiling watching sandy blonde hair was messy on the side that wasn't shaved.

" Breakin my heart over here, Finny" He looked up at her,

" Hey you alright sister?"

" Yeah, so you're the mayor of Goodneighbor?" Hancock smiled, and extended his arms as if to showcase the entrance.

" You bet I am, sorry your first visit to Goodneighbor started like this. Goodneighbor is of the people, for the people, everyone is welcome here, you feel me?"

 _I get it, Hancock, american flag, of the people for the people_

" Of the people, for the people? Oh my god.." She contained a laugh and rolled her eyes.

" I can tell I'm gunna like you. Listen while you're here consider this town your home away from home."  
Hancock winked at her and walked through a door followed by the woman with the shaved head.

 _Now to find the Gunner, If I was a Merc where would I be?_  
Juniper walked around the corner and saw neon lettering.

" The Third Rail?" Before she could go in Hancock's voice was cutting through the sounds of the small town.

" Hey everyone! Gather around and let's shoot the fat! I know you're all busy doin your own thing but I don't want you to forget what really matters."

People started running up not wanting to miss another word, and Juniper back up next to a quiet man in dark shades. He looked familiar, but she couldn't place him so she kept looking around. She mostly ignored his speech, because politicians were boring even after the war. Juniper also wanted to see who was all here, and how many people there were. A habit that she formed after forming so many settlements in the commonwealth. Everyone starting dispersing and she looked back up to the balcony and Hancock was eyeing her. He raised a brown bottle up towards her and took a drink, she looked down at the third rail and walked through the doors.

Juniper barely made it down the stairs after meeting a ghoul named Ham, when a taller ghoul with a green beret made his way towards her.

"From what I hear, you're extremely capable of handling yourself. Is that true?" His dulled blue eyes were complemented by the dark crimson bloodshot around them.

"Depends on who's asking" She put her hand on her hip and looked around and saw no one else was listening.

" My employer occasionally needs people like you, individuals that are able to handle the worst situations and still come out swinging. I'm unable to tell you exactly what you'd be doing, that's still undecided. You'll be paid fairly, but it won't be without it's risks." Juniper smiled back at him,

" I live for danger where do I sign up, beret?" His expression softened and he smiled.

" I like your enthusiasm, you'll mostly be working under me." Juniper raised an eyebrow and let her eyes wander playfully. This wasn't missed by the beret who cleared his throat, and tried to brush it off. It was meant to be harmless but he seemed more distraught than she would have expected.

"By the way I'm Edward Deegan, It's a pain in the ass but you're going to have to goto a personal interview with my boss. The name is Jack Cabot, he's eccentric just to warn you. I'll let him know you're coming, when you're ready stop by the old Cabot house."

He went to leave and hit his leg on the red ottoman next to Juniper. He cleared his throat and turned back to the bar.

" Ugh, another Merc lookin for MacCready? He's in the back room, more of you come everyday."

The drifter scowled and flopped down onto the nearby couch. Juniper walked over to the side room and tried to eavesdrop on the conversation between what sounded like 3 people.

" 3 months, it took you that long to find me? You guys are getting rusty. Should we take this outside boys?"

" It ain't like that, we're just here to deliver a message. We're giving you one chance to stop taking jobs in the Commonwealth." The second voice sounded deeper, and older than the first.

"In case you forgot I don't take orders from any of you anymore. I left the Gunners for good, so take your girlfriend and leave while you still can." The first voice sounded angry, and Juniper heard him get up while he was talking.

"Fuck this, tell me we don't have to listen to this bullshit."

She couldn't help it anymore and Juniper peeked over to see all three speakers. Two of them were dressed in Gunner attire, which always looked like pre-war military clothing. The one in the middle wore a tattered trench coat and a worn hat with a single bullet attached to the band. His hair looked almost crimson in the red lighting of the room.

" The only reason you're still alive is because we don't want a war with Goodneighbor. We respect other people's boundaries unlike you MacCready."

"Glad to have disappointed you Winnie" He smiled back at the bigger of the two gunners.

" Play it off all you want, but if you operate within gunner territory, all bets are off. You understand?"

"We finished?"

"Yeah, we're finished, common Barnes."

The two gunner turned around and MacCready turn to sit back down on the battered velvet armchair. Juniper leaned against the mannequin casually as they walked by. They looked in her direction right as the mannequin fell down and she caught herself. They both smirked at her and she readjusted herself, quickly making her way towards MacCready.

" You always try to make such good impressions? If your hear to preach, or sell something you've got the wrong guy. You need a hired gun, let's talk." He stood up and Juniper was able to get a closer look at him.

" Maybe, who were those two earlier?"

" Just a bunch of assholes looking to step on anyone, and everyone in order to get to the top. Shouldn't be surprised though, that's what happens when you run with the gunners as long as they have."

"Not sure what the Gunners are kid, should I even know what you're talking about?" Her words hit him, by the way he furrowed his brow.

"First off, I'm no kid and it's probably a good thing you don't know anything about them. I don't want the smell of Winlock and Barnes scaring away my business. What about you, how do I know I won't end up with a bullet in my back one night?"

Juniper tilted her head, and smiled.  
 _He's kinda cute for someone that's not prewar_

" I guess you don't, it's all part of your line of work right?"

" Can't argue with that. Listen it's 250 caps, no room for bargaining and it's all upfront. What do you say?" MacCready watched her run her thumb down the corner of her pale rosy bottom lip, while she looked away lost in thought.. He'd never seen someone that looked so...so clean. Her hair was swept into a tight bun and her grey eyes were lined with dark navy eyeliner. He got distracted by all the freckles though.

"I'll hire you, but I'll make it 300 caps upfront. We might have to do some side errands, before we make our way to the real job. Any problem with that MacCready?"

Juniper raised her eyebrow and grinned at him. MacCready got up and grabbed his rifle.

" 50 more caps than asked? Now you're speakin my language, where to boss?" MacCready grinned back at her.

"Before anything, I'm going to need to restock supplies, get a drink, and sleep on a real mattress. Come on, first round's on me" She smiled walking back into the bar area and turned around motioning for him to follow her. They had only been sitting down for about 5 minutes before a mr. handy named Whitechapel Charlie hovered over.

" Before you get too liquored up I got a proposition for ya" Juniper eyed Charlie, and shrugged getting ready to listen to yet another job request.

" I got a dirty job that needs a very dirty dirty girl to get it done. 200 caps after it's done of course, interested?"

" Gimme some details first, metal man" At that MacCready almost spit beer everywhere. Juniper glanced over and grinned.

"Clearin out warehouses in town, needs to be someone new to town, jus like urself. No survivors, no witnesses. Now are you in our out." His lense refocused at Juniper and she sighed.

"Alright let's go MacCready, we'll do this then it's time for bed." She yawned and stretched before getting up. Maccready stood up downing the last few sips of his beer, and trailed after her.

He watched as she looked through her pipboy walking up the stairs.  
 _I'll get to see how she is in a fight at least._

Juniper didn't have any problems picking the lock to the first warehouse, and MacCready was impressed.

" You're just full of surprises aren't you? Gunna have to show me how to do that one of these days." He walked through the door after her and they both crouched down and were silent.

" One on the stairs, and almost a half dozen up stairs...I think?" Juniper grabbed a grenade from her bag and snuck over to the hole in the ceiling.

" It sounded like there were less, what are you?" A few seconds passed and he realized what she was doing. "Are you crazy!?" He watched her plan out the riceshay grenade's path, and she shushed him.

" Hey catch!" She threw the grenade threw the hole on to the side of the wall upstairs and watched it fly to the side.

" Fuck, get out of the way!"

"Grenade!"

She heard Triggermen yelling and sprinting to get away. Juniper made her way to the stairs and held up the double barreled shotgun she had found on her way to Goodneighbor. She waited and right after the explosion the one guy on the stairs lost his balance and fell into her sight. Right before she could shoot, a shot breezed through the air and he was dead in an instant.

"Can't let you have all the fun, right?" She glanced back and saw MacCready in action and was impressed.

" Alright hotshot let's get the rest." Juniper led him through the rubble and took out the last two. The others had died during the explosion.

" It's all clear up here too, one down two to go." Juniper nodded and looked at the next two locations on her pipboy.

"The next two are right next to each other, wanna divide and conquer?" Right after she asked he threw an ammo box over to her.

" If that's what you wanna do, we'll get done alot faster. Just don't go getting yourself killed, you still haven't paid me." He walked down the stairs, Juniper stuffed the box into her pack and followed after him. He held the door open from the outside and she flashed her pipboy at him.

" You should at least know where you're going" Juniper waved her arm in front of him trying to stop him and he rolled his eyes.

"There's only 3 warehouses in town anyway, and we just shot up one of them." Juniper shrugged and flipped her pipboy light off.

" Alright warehouse master, I'll meet you outside in the alley inbetween the only two warehouses left in town. Better?" He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose while she walked towards the warehouse on the left.  
 _What did I get myself into,_ He looked up at the night sky and exhaled. _at least she has caps to spend. It's not like she really needs my help for these types of jobs. She never got a chance to explain the big job she hired me for._

MacCready watched her disappear into the darkness of the warehouse, and tried to opened the door for the warehouse on the right.  
 _Makes it look so easy,_

Juniper was noticed almost immediately, as she took down the first Triggerman she saw.

" Well boys let's see what this doll can do!" The foot steps from the ceiling sounded like there were at least 7 coming down to meet her. She ran over to the staircase and threw down one near the top of the stairs and one by the bottom. Her heart was beating, hard enough to feel in her throat, as she listened for the footsteps.

"Gunna put my feet up after this one, what about you gu-" He was cut off as the first explosion rang through the narrow warehouse. Dust spewed out from the wall that Juniper was crouched against. _Fuck now is not the time to get shit in my eye._

" You're dead, you hear me!" two sets of footsteps ran back upstairs and Juniper sprinted grabbing the second mine. They weren't getting dodged the bodies up the stairs until she saw the backs of the triggermen. _Gottcha  
_ Her shotgun was up in an instant and she shot the one closest to her in the side and watched him grab onto the farthest one's suspenders. He fell down and she shot while she had the chance. Juniper sighed and slumped her shoulders down. Her heart stopped when she felt a firm grip grab the back of her head, running into her bun.

" Time to teach you a lesson" he threw her head into the side of the brick wall, when Juniper tried to open her eyes all she saw was a foggy haze. Her hands searched for her gun and when she found the familiar texture she felt like her hand was being crushed. Her hand was being stepped on by the triggerman and she couldn't help but scream as she heard the disgusting sound of her bones crunching.

"Coulda just walked away" He released her hand and she cradled it in her arms. Juniper tried to kick off of the floor to get away from him, her vision was returning but she couldn't see a way out.  
He followed her as she drug herself away from him, and he kept smiling.

"The way I see it, one of us is gonna get rubbed out one way or another." His face contorted and she panicked.  
 _Get away get away get away_

" Get the fuck away from me motherfucker." She tasted iron in her last words and felt the heat of blood pour out of her mouth. That pissed him off and he kicked her ribs hard. As she cried out Juniper got a glimpse of her pistol sticking out of her pack close enough for her to she looked up from it and saw their eyes both started moving as fast as they could trying to reach it first. Right as she clasped the grip he landed a kick into her ribs again and she was in the fetal position. As he went to push her onto her back, Juniper rolled over exposing the pistol, she unloaded into his chest and he fell over while she kept squeezing the trigger. Tears ran down her dirty bloodied face as she shook, slowly the pistol dropped from her hands and heard it drop against the wooden floors. Juniper felt the room closing in as she looked down at the blood everywhere. What was hers, and what was his?

The adrenaline started to fade and the pain started to overwhelm her as she pushed herself up against the nearest wall trying to breathe. Juniper used her foot to move her pack closer as she looked for something to stop the bleeding. She looked down and saw the damage done to her vault suit.  
 _Whose blood is this?_ Her hands touched her stomach, dyeing them a deep crimson. Right as she was looking at them, MacCready came around the corner and just looked at her.

"Jesus, are you alright?!" He dropped down to his knees, and she flinched not knowing how to react.

" Hey, come on that was the last of them." His blue eyes searched her grey ones and she nodded. MacCready saw her pack., he went to get up and she grabbed his sleeve with her good hand. He looked down at her and she just looked back at him with tears in her eyes.

"I'm going to grab your pack to get a stimpack, and some med x. I'm not going anywhere" She nodded and slowly let go as he grabbed a handful of first aid supplies. MacCready laid them out next to her

" Your hand is broken, and you look like you have a concussion, is there anything i'm missing?" Juniper put her hand over her ribs and he started to grab med x syringes. He injected them into her hand, and made his way to her ribs. Juniper swallowed hard, each time he pressed a needle into her. The next round of shots were stimpacks and slowly she started to realize what had just happened.

" I use to hate needles, every time I went to the doctor." She looked off to the side, looking at the body count in the room, the pain slowly dispersing from her body.  
" With all the shit they developed, why couldn't they figure out something without a needle" Her head tilted back until it met the wall and she shut her eyes. He looked up at her and just listened quietly, not knowing what to say.  
" It must be hard for all of you. Preston, Struges, Danse, Nick, hell even that ghoul Hancock. You were born into this shadow of what use to be. Maybe it's our fault, all of us that knew war was coming. We didn't do anything to stop it, the first bomb was launched by everyone who did nothing. I'm...I'm just so sorry." Her voice cracked, and MacCready watched her press her forearm to her face.  
 _  
Is she prewar? How is that possible?  
_ " Listen we've got to get you somewhere safer, can't have you dying on me." He threw her pack onto her back, and she grabbed his arm.

" I can't go out just yet." MacCready rolled his eyes, and she stopped him before he could say anything.  
" I won't have this place thinking I'm weak, Like I can't handle myself. I'd be a target overnight."He sat back down and looked her over.

" If you can walk all the way to the Rexford, you'll send a message. Trust me, no one will wanna mess with you especially with the Triggermen's rep." MacCready injected her legs with one more med x, to give the overall appearance that nothing was wrong.  
 _I lost count of how much I just gave her shit._

Juniper wiped her face with some scrap fabric she had found and rebunned her hair. She stood up without his help and she walked past him to the stairs. He walked up next to her and walked in step with her down the stairs. Watching in case she fell, but she didn't. When he glanced over to her, you couldn't even tell she had just been almost killed.

" Walk behind me ok?" She said without looked over to him, as she started to open the door. MacCready followed behind her and looked at the expressions of the people who crossed her path. They looked stunned, no one said a word to her as they walked across town to the hotel.  
This woman was nothing like the stumbling vault dweller he met earlier that night. She radiated purpose and strength.

" I'd like a room one with a tub, if you have it." Without asking she tossed caps at the clair and she quickly gave Juniper the room key. MacCready followed her up the stairs into their room, he glanced back down at the hotel staff. She was new to Goodneighbor so they looked hesitant, but caps are caps. Juniper wasn't able to take any of the hotel in, while she was in this state. All that was running through her mind was to keep walking. She opened the door and waited as MacCready walked in behind her. Juniper saw the bed and was about a foot away before she fell over onto it.

" Sorry next time...you…..can...have….the...bed." Were her last words before she was out like a light. He grabbed her pack and tossed it down next to the bed, then he tossed his down next to hers. MacCready laid down on the couch across the room and positioned himself so he was eyeing the door. He watched her back slowly rise and fall,making sure she was still breathing. He was about to fall asleep, when he heard the first muffled snore. _Great._


	8. A Cap for your thoughts?

MacCready woke up to the soft hum of the classical music station. He cautiously opened an eye and saw Juniper sitting on the head of the bed looking out the window through the wooden planks. She must have woken up before him and took a bath. Her hair looked clean wrapped up in a bun, only this time it was braided. Her fingers danced on the edge of the wood to the song playing. The soft morning light suited her features, the song came to an end as he pushed himself up on the couch. She looked over and turned to face him.

" I'm sorry did I wake you?" She must have changed clothes too, she was wearing a sleeveless shirt with navy shorts.

" No, I should be awake anyway. What time is it?" He put his face in his hands rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes. She glanced at her pipboy.

" It's 11 on the dot. We don't have too much to do in town today, mostly just getting our caps from Charlie, and restocking supplies." She hopped down from the bed frame and walked over to her pack, the floor creaking with every step.

" I've never met anybody who actually listens to that station." He wanted to ask her about what she said yesterday. He watched for her reaction.  
 _A vault dweller that's prewar_

Juniper looked up and had a small mutfruit in her hand. " I don't know why, they're all beautiful compositions." She took a bite and shrugged. " When I grew up I had to memorize composers, and eventually I just started liking that genre." MacCready kept looking at her, waiting for an answer.

" When was that exactly?" He casually threw that out in the open, and she smiled.

" Do I stand out that much?" Juniper glanced down and smiled while she finished off her fruit.

"Like a sore thumb, to be honest" He smirked back at her. " As long as I know what I'm getting into, we won't have any problems. Besides I haven't had a job in over a week, because of those two."

Juniper wiped her hands on her shorts. " Those two from yesterday? Do the Gunners have that much influence?" MacCready nodded back at her. " Can I ask you something?" She sat down on the edge of the bed. He looked uneasy, and readjusted.

"As long as I get those caps, ask away." She frowned a little, and looked at her pipboy regretting asking.

 _He's not like Preston, at the end of the day hes an employee  
_ She felt a ping of sadness, and stood up quickly. " Sorry I forgot I had an errand to do, meet me by the front gate at 12 sharp." She grabbed her pack and gave a brief smile. MacCready watched her exit quickly, and ran his fingers through his locks and sighed.

" It's better this way, just trust me." He grabbed his first boot to lace up and saw a small box of ammunition for his rifle. He felt himself smile a little as he tossed them into a smaller pocket in his washed up a little before he left, and went to meet her a little before 12.

Juniper didn't mean for it to be awkward but somehow they'd been walking for awhile in silence. Before she met up with him she had picked up her mended vault suit from Daisy who repaired the stitching. " Thanks for mending this, I wasn't sure that anybody knew how to use a sewing machine." Daisy looked at her sweetly.

"Don't mention it, us prewar gals have to stick together right?" Juniper nodded at that and smiled back at her.

" I'll clear that libary out for you, just give me a few days ok?" She put her pack back on turned to leave.

" Alright I'll be here, just don't get yourself killed over it." Juniper waved back to her and saw MacCready already waiting by the gate.

She walked over to him and pulled out a small sack of caps, handing it over to him. He took it and weighed it down in his hand.

" I'm not stiffing you, it's all in there." She tried not to sound as annoyed as she was. It wasn't his fault, she just was trying to get use to the idea of buying companionship. _Ugh that's not fair to think that way either he's not an escort...kinda?_ It wouldn't be so hard, expect that she'd never had someone come to her aid when she was as hurt as she was at the warehouse. She wished he was a minuteman, so he would follow her and do odd jobs out of a sort of kinship.

" Didn't say you were, boss." He quietly stashed the caps into his pack and she turned for the door. __

  
While they were walking neither of them said anything, she didn't notice the silence until the smell of salt water invaded her senses. _Ugh I walked too far north again._ She stopped and looked at her pipboy, wishing she could make little notes on what streets were actually passable and not blocked.

"Is everything alright?" His voice broke her concentration, and she shook her head.

" Sorry just thinking about the big questions, like what expired food i'm going to eat later." He had started to notice just how sarcastic she was, which was a nice change from his usual company. She smiled and looked up and noticing the scenery. Something felt familiar about this area, It wasn't just because she had been there before the war, she scrolled through her jobs and stopped abruptly. _Those street names, Is that the Cabot house?_ She felt her head ache when she tried to remember, then for a second she saw the streets as they use to be. She remembered turning the corner and being at a grand house all the lights in the house lit up at night. _This can't be the job location beret was talking about._

" Did you decide on something? Maybe Sugar bombs, or are y-" MacCready didn't finish before she started to sprint around the block. " Wait!" He charged after her for a few blocks and almost ran into her when she stopped. He looked up and saw something that didn't make any sense.  
" This house, looks untouched. That's impossible isn't it?" She started walking and he walked besides her. Juniper paused for a second before she pressed the speaker button, and he wasn't sure but she looked nervous.

"Go away scaver" Juniper recognized the damaged voice.

" I'm expected aren't I Beret?" The door clicked and she smiled.

"Oh it's you, come on in." Juniper stood up and was about to open the door and looked behind her at MacCready.

" I don't know what's going to happen, but you might want to hang tight in the foyer." Juniper looked over at him. He nodded and followed her in.

Beret was standing by the entrance and eyed MacCready behind her. He raised his hand gesturing towards the main sitting area. " Ready to meet the boss?" Juniper inhaled and nodded.

" Lead on." Beret walked into the other room calling for Jack, and Juniper felt her stomach drop.  
" MacCready wait here, I'll be right in the other room." She smoothed her hair down and turned to face the doorway.  
" I'll be right on the other side of this door, If things get messy." He watched her nod, and she shut the doors behind her. _She's acting weirder than usual, but maybe this is the usual. It's only been a day I guess._ MacCready sighed and went to go sit on the stairs.

" Welcome to the Cabot house, I'm Jack…" He stopped in his tracks when he saw Juniper. " No, It can't be." Beret turned and looked back and forth at the two of them. Jack started to pick up the pace as he got closer. " Junie!" He grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug. Juniper reciprocated the hug, only because it was comforting to see a familiar face. Somehow she had started to remember jack the moment she saw him. She had felt something when she saw the house but it wasn't until she actually saw his face she remembered who the Cabots were. The new year parties, and the way their house smelled. It missed that after christmas pine smell, but she still could remember it so vividly.

" Jack I can't believe it's really you." This broke her concentration and the pine smell was replaced by the smoke on his lab coat and he pulled away and looked at her.

" How is this possible? It's been over 200 years." He kept looking her over as if he still was in disbelief. Beret cleared his throat, and Jack looked over at him. " Edward, This is Juniper. She's.. A very old friend of mine." He looked back over at her, " Is there anything you want, something to drink? Edward please brew a pot of coffee or do you prefer bourbon still? We can talk business after."

" Coffee is fine, thank you." Juniper watched as Jack motioned towards the curio at Beret.  
The ghoul just nodded still eyeing the two of them and made his way to the kitchen.

" The last time I was here, it was before I went to rome I think." Juniper admired the preserved molding, and she smiled. For the first time in awhile she was remembering who she use to be, without having nightmares.

" It's been so long Junie, it feels like a lifetime ago." Jack nudged her arm. " Come sit down, tell me how this is possible." Juniper smiled and followed him to the couches.

" Do you remember Al?" She sat down and looked at him while he at across from her.

" Of course the Marine who you ran off with? It's been a long time but not long enough for that to fade away." His expression soured and Juniper laughed nervously.

" Well, he had been signed up for a vault. He was a veteran and our admission was guaranteed." She readjusted when she felt her mouth dry up.

" I don't see him with you, did you two have a lover's quarrel? I never expected him to last very long with you." He mumbled something else but Juniper wasn't listening flashbacks of his death kept coming back to her. She pressed down on her wedding ring that still hung from her neck under her vault suit.

" He actually didn't make it, so I've been rediscovering Boston by myself actually." Beret walked back over to them and put the undamaged pot down. He put the two cups next to the pot and stood back. In an attempt not to seem like he was interrupting.

" That's a shame, Junie. I'm sorry to hear that, truly I am." He poured himself a cup and took a sip.

" It sounds worse than it really is." _Liar_ " But you haven't mentioned how you're still here Jack, Fountain of youth? Or is it something in the water nowadays?" Jack looked nervous and before he could say anything, a voice called upstairs for him.

"Jack, who are you talking to?" Jack put his cup down, and watched his mother almost have a heart attack when she saw Juniper. " My god, It can't be." She held her hand up to cover her mouth.

" Mother calm down, Juniper had been in a vault, I assume under cryostasis?" He glanced back over at her and she nodded. " Come down here and say hello." Juniper watched her walk down the stairs with her hand on her chest.

" I can't believe my eyes." She held her arms out for Juniper. " Come here child." Juniper got up and hugged the elderly woman carefully.

"It's good to see you as well." Juniper remembered how formal the woman was.

" Mother, by chance Junie here is our new employee. She took a job that Edward offered her, what are the chances?" He looked positively tickled by the situation, while his mother scowled.

" Juniper can't possibly." She looked back at her. " It's not true is it? This isn't the job for someone like you." Her words stung a bit but she smiled back at the woman.

" Don't worry yourself with me. I've been out here for awhile now, I know how things are." Jack moved over a bit.

" Mother do sit down, It's bad for you to get so excited." She shook her head and started back up the stairs.

" There's something she should have, I'll be right down." They watched her made her way back up the staircase and through the hallway. Juniper sat back down and poured herself a cup of coffee.

" Tell me about this job I was hired for. Ber- Edwards I mean told me it pays well?" Beret cracked a small smile at that slip up.

" Yes, Yes, It's just about a lost shipment. You can't mean you still want to do the job, do you? If you want you can stay here, with us. I'd appreciate the company, I never could get you out of my head you know. I'm not ashamed to admit that." He looked off to the side, just as Juniper did at times. Remembering the past as if it was a lifetime ago, sadly it was. " We could have everything like it was before the bombs, I'm not much of a party person but christmas is coming up soon isn't it?" He glanced over at Beret who nodded. Juniper felt her stomach tense up at the thought.

 _There are too many people who need someone, who really need help. I have to find my son and try to make a life for him, whoever I was before...I can't go back_

" Jack, things are different now. I'm..Different." She watched his expression sadden a bit. " I know it's strange to ask but, I don't want to commonwealth to know about this. I don't want other people to know who I was before this." She looked at her reflection in the cup and sought out the warmth for comfort. She was hesitant to tell him that she couldn't remember, or that she didn't really want to anymore.

" Well Junie I don't know what for but I'll honour that request, because it's you." He stood up and walked over to the stairs and put his hand on the bannister. "The job is yours if you want it as well, my offer still stands." He started to walk up the stairs. " Edwards will explain the details of the job. Also Edwards send Junie home with one of the good bottles of bourbon, it's her favorite."  
Juniper smiled, as Jack disappeared. _You never get over your first love I guess  
_ She saw Al's face for a second and she felt the sting again. She felt Jack's pain briefly and she felt guilty. _Staying here wouldn't help him, It would be cruel to both of us._

" I don't know who you are to Jack, but I'll do you the same courtesy about your past." Beret had retrieved the bourbon and was offering it to her. " I have some information on the shipment, and all about the other jobs lined up for you. Only if you're interested of course." Juniper took the bottle and stood up.

" Let me mark the locations on my pipboy, and I'll be good to go." Beret smiled and started to show her the locations.

It had been a while and MacCready was getting uneasy. " Whoever lives here must have made a deal with the devil." He mumbled to himself, watching the dust float around in the air. He wanted to eavesdrop, out of curiousity but also didn't want to loose this contract. The doors opened and Juniper came out looking a little flushed, with the ghoul from earlier.

" Is this what you meant by the way, what you said about working under you?" MacCready couldn't see her face but he saw the ghoul's, he looked shocked.

" I um, I'll be waiting for you, erm the package." The ghoul turned and walked quickly back into the other room. He heard what sounded like a giggle. MacCready cleared his throat, and she turned quickly.

" Oh, hey MacCready. We got all the job information, and we're good to go." He raised an eyebrow. Right when he was about to say something snarky, an old woman brushed past him.

" Oh Juniper, I can't stand to see you go. Here She would have wanted you to have this, I sent Edwards to check on the locations of the people we use to know. He came back with things he thought were important." Juniper just stared at what was in the woman's hands.

" Thank you, I really must be going." She took it quickly and turned towards the door.  
"MacCready." That's all he needed, and he caught up with her. He turned around one more time to take in the house, and saw a glimpse of the older woman's face. She held onto her sides, and looked heartbroken.

" Sorry about that, I just wanted to leave." Juniper broke the silence she once again accidently made. They had walked to the waterfront, and she stopped at the railing. " I know this is strictly business, but I don't want you to not know what you're getting into." MacCready leaned against the railing listening.

" Listen, You've been my boss for a day. You don't owe me anything, you paid me so here I am. I'd walk a thousand miles if it meant a pile of caps waiting for me at the end." _Or if Duncan's cure was._

" I understand that, but you asked me before so I want to tell you. You had my back at the warehouses, so I do owe you something." She breathed out slowly, and faced him.  
" I'm prewar, I was stuck in a cryostasis vault. I'm currently looking for the merc who took my son, that's what I hired you for. I've hardly had any training with weapons, and I'm still trying to get the hang of this place." She sighed and leaned back looking at the sun setting. MacCready whistled and looked up at the sky.

" Well, I figured not too much of a surprise. I thought you were going to say you were an alien or something. Now that would be a deal breaker." Juniper bursted out laughing, and he laughed with her.

" We should start moving, we still have to find the brewing machine, plus I have minutemen errands." She looked over her pipboy and selected the closest objective. In her other hand she looked at her mother's first wedding ring to her father. She wouldn't be able to forget that. She slipped it into the chest pocket of her vault suit.

"The sooner we get somewhere the better, we're like walking targets out here." MacCready eyed across the river at the Mirelurks in the water. Juniper started walking again.

" You afraid of some crabs?" MacCready scoffed.

" I hate getting wet, that's all." Juniper looked over her shoulder at him. He was wearing his goofy hat with bullets on the front.

" It's ok I know a lot of Mercenaries that are afraid of bugs, you're secret is safe with me."

" Ha ha, very funny." MacCready watched as Juniper started to kick a pebble of concrete while they walked. " What was up with you and that guy anyway? That ghoul too, do you all know each other?" Juniper almost tripped cursing as she missed the pebble.

" Jack and I knew each other because of our families, he was always so awkward though. I haven't seen him for years before the bombs dropped. He looked so tired.. I don't know how to describe it." He watched her look at a building they passed, as she sighed. " I use to drive down these streets so much, well get driven."

" Like in one of these?" MacCready kicked the rusted out frame that was left of a car. Juniper shrugged looking around.

" It's hard to tell what these cars even use to be." She ran her hand down the driver's door frame of the car next to them.

" Wait why hasn't Jack aged?" Juniper shrugged and started to walk again.

" That's the first question anyone would have asked right? Honestly there's so many things that people from my era have gone through to preserve themselves. I just don't want to even ask, knowing that family they could be eating people or something." MacCready's eyes widened. " Not that they are, just saying." She smiled at his reaction.

" That doesn't explain you're ghoul fetish by the way." Juniper stopped and stared at him, he put his hands up defensively. " Just curious, it's a long walk." She sighed.

" That's not it, knowing Jack they probably treat him like a slave." She remembered how they treated people they felt that were low born. " You know once at one of their parties, that old woman you saw slapped one of their maids, in the middle of everyone." She shook her head. "I can't even imagine doing that." They both stopped when they saw a couple raiders walking in front of them. Juniper got out her musket and MacCready pushed it down holding his finger to his lips.

He lowered himself to steady his aim, If he did this fast enough he could take them both out at once. She mimicked him, and crouched next to him watching him. He slowly inhaled and held it one after the other he fired his rifle, hitting both targets. He stood up and glanced over.

" Impressed yet?" he grinned. She rolled her eyes and went to go collect what she could from the dead raiders. He followed behind her watching the rooftops for anymore that could pop out.

She was pocketing some shotgun shells and she saw a box of rifle ammunition on the other body. She tossed a box to him. " Just in case you need it, couldn't hurt."

" I'm not one to turn down ammo." He pulled them out and attached them to his bullet belt on his leg. " You still didn't answer me by the way. You were all over that guy..Edwards?" She turned red, and threw an object at him. He didn't dodge it in time, and picked it up after it bounced off his leg. _Cram?_

" There's a thing of cram, so you can cram it." Her eyes stood out more because of how red she was. " If that's what we're doing then tell me the last time you got laid?" MacCready glared at her.  
 _Ok maybe a bad thing to ask, he started it though._ She bit her lip, and looked at his shadow from the moonlight.

There was a pause, and Juniper stood up and chewed on some of the bubblegum she found. "Whatever you say it doesn't beat 200 years." After a few minutes, MacCready sighed.

" Okay on that you got me beat." She smiled and the tension from earlier seemed to dissolve as they made their way to diamond city.

Once they got there, Juniper spent days doing favours for people. Getting things for the science center, Helping an old guy paint the green wall, and she kept spending the extra caps to get him his own room. _She can't still feel bad for that one night at the Rexford, it's been almost 2 weeks now that I think about it_

" Hey, do you have a second?" She looked up from her noodle bowl she had grabbed from Takahashi. It had just stopped raining and her hair was started to come unraveled from her braid.

" Sure, did you want some of these?" He shrugged, and she ordered another one. " We can talk once we get back to the Dugout." She grabbed the new bowl nudged him with her frame to move. For a second all he could smell was Juniper. It's not that it was unwelcome, that's the problem. She was already a few steps ahead of him and he struggled to keep up with the full bowl in his hand.

" How come you haven't bought that house the mayor offered you?" He looked over at it then she did too.

" It just doesn't look like home, to me anyways. Besides I've been away from Sanctuary for too long." MacCready followed her through the Inn entrance. _She mentioned she started a few settlements, we've never been there though... we haven't been to any of them._

He watched her eye the preserved pie as they walked by. _Everyday she tries to get that thing._ For some reason she's dead set on getting it, but she only tries when nobody is in the lobby. Sometimes he has a hard time falling asleep and he listens to her sneak down the hallway from room 3. She went to walk around the corner and he stopped her.

" Here my room's closer." She turned and he opened the door for her.  
.The noise of the bar area died down once the door was shut, Juniper sat on the small arm chair and put her noodles on the table. He sat down on the couch next to her.

" Look you've always been straight with me, so it's only fair to be straight with you. I don't know if those Ass- I mean jerks Winlock and Barnes are ever going to leave me alone. Before you I hadn't had a job in weeks, not to mention I couldn't even come to Diamond city without them chasing me out." Juniper watched him and he sighed.

" Is that why you need caps so bad?" She felt bad for him, they hadn't even done the thing she hired him for.

" If I could just pay them off, they would stop bothering me. I could finally get more jobs. Knowing the Gunners like I do though, that may not even be enough." He paused for a few second, and they both didn't say anything. He started to smile devilishly, and Juniper looked at him nervously. " Unless.. We took the fight to them. They wouldn't even see it coming, then I'd be free of the Gunners for good." Juniper looked down into her bowl quietly.  
" Look I wouldn't be asking you or even mentioning it to you if I didn't trust you." _She's always been upfront with me._ " These past week I've started to feel like you actually care what happens to me, which is an unfamiliar feeling." He ran his calloused finger along the edge of the chipped bowl. " You seem like a genuinely good person, which is rare nowadays."

"MacCready, If you need me to help you I will. I'm sorry that we haven't even been to Fort Hagen, I've been sidetracked and also I just don't know if I should really go." She pinched the bridge of her nose. " For all I know, my baby isn't a baby anymore. All the things that could be wrong, I don't know if I'm ready to find out." She laughed a bit and leaned back trying to steady herself. " I don't want to seem like I need reassurance or that I can't handle myself. It's just when it comes to Shaun I just don't know what to do." _God I must sound so pathetic._ She felt her eyes start to burn. _Don't cry._ She felt her leg radiate with heat. His hand was just above her knee and he was rubbing the side with his thumb. __

" Don't think like that, these past two weeks I've had you're back and you've had mine. You don't need to act like a...what is it….hourman? No..Minutemen! Some minutemen general." Juniper Smiled and laughed. " Besides you're only human, nobody asked for you to say yes to everyone that asks for help. Especially the ones that don't pay." She glared over at him.

" Yeah you pushed me into trying to bribe Abbot for money!" She was trying not to laugh. " He's an old man trying to paint a wall, he doesn't have much going on." MacCready started laughing. He moved his hand away.

"Hey, caps are caps." He raised his arms defensively. She smiled looking away, but she still felt his hand on her knee. _Oh god that's all I need right now._ She readjusted in her seat, and grabbed the noodle cup.

" We should eat these before they get all mushy." She started to wrap noodles around her chopstick.

" There's one more thing, something that's been bothering me. It's nothing too serious, so don't worry." She nodded and listened. " Ever since the Rexford you haven't bought just one room, that's been almost 150 caps just wasted." She looked away and counted using her fingers then looked back over horrified.

" You're right oh my god, I just didn't want you to sleep on the couch." MacCready shrugged.

" It's up to you but that's alot of caps." Juniper nodded, and he picked up his bowl and started to slurp the contents. She looked over at him and gave him a look. She had almost finished her noodles when she stopped and looked back over.

" Vadim the other day asked you about someone named Lucy?" MacCready stopped and just stared at the bowl. _Fuck, is that his girlfriend? Wife? Daughter?_ " I'm sorry you just never mentioned her, I don't know when the last time you saw her was. I don't want to keep you away from her." He looked up and his expression was soft, but he looked like he was in pain.

"My wife.. she didn't make it. That's all I really want to say about it right now." He got up and grabbed his bowl. " If you're done I'll take yours back too." She nodded and thanked him. She watched him until he shut the door, even then she kept looking at the wood. _That means we're both widows, I never even asked him before this. Should I have?_ She sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. She leaned over and dug through her bag and set a few boxes of ammunition on the couch cushion. They had also while running around doing favours for people found preserved pillows and blankets. She frowned seeing them and gave him the nicer of each set. Juniper took the smaller blanket and sat on the mattress, while unravelling her braid. She ran her nails through her scalp and laid down. _We're both windows then..Did he keep his ring too?_ She thought about this as she drifted into a deep sleep.

When he came in later, MacCready saw the stash on the couch walked over to it. _She always has to try and one up me I swear._ He picked up the blanket and went to go switch it with the smaller one. There's no way he was going to let her use the worse of the two. Juniper Sometimes slept with the blanket over her head, which scared the crap out of him at first. He slid the blanket down and he watch it drift over her curly locks and then down her now tan skin. _She never use to be this tan, she's finally looking more and more like a wastelander._ That wasn't completely true though, she still had features that looked otherworldly to him. The kinder she was to him the more he wanted to do to help her, she was a good person. She most of the time didn't ask for money when they did jobs, which bothered him at first. Now he just shook his head and waited for her to say where they were going, or saving. The blanket was almost off and she grabbed his hand, he felt her soft hand over his knuckles. MacCready looked at her face hesitantly and watched her face relax.

" Mac-Cready.." She said softly, and he felt his body melt. He quickly draped the nicer blanket on her and she looked peaceful. Slowly he slid his hand away and he went and sat down. He sighed as he kicked his boots off and laid down looking up at the dirty ceiling. _After Fort Hagen we need to talk about our contract._


	9. It's about a Promise

Juniper felt the blissful warmth from the sun on her skin. The soft scent of roses filled her senses. The crashing sounds of the ocean in the far distance, and she felt she was finally at peace. Her eyes opened and she was overlooking the ocean on a cliff side garden, everything was lush and the sky was clear. In the back of her mind this seemed too good to be true, but she didn't care. The white stone railing felt cool to the touch and she ran her hand along the edge. The trees rustled and a soft wind blew through her hair, it was down and wasn't straightened. How long had it been since the wind just blew through her hair? How long since she hadn't been worried about someone trying to shoot her or, worse? Her curls tickled against her bare skin and she shuddered. In the distance she heard a baby crying, turning she started to follow the stone path through beautiful rose bushes towering above her. They varied in shades but all had soft red, and violet tones, each had a slightly different scent as she grazed up the corner of her white dress she felt the moss between each stone while she walked barefoot. The conservatory came into view and she crossed the short bridge over the glistening stream. It was large and connected to a beautifully white large estate. Following the white stone stairs, she was met with a strong feel of familiarity tugging at the back of her mind. The doors were open and she walked to the side of the glass room and found a white bassinet tucked away behind a flowering lemon tree. Juniper pulled back the top covering the bundle and was met with piercing green eyes and a tuft of ginger hair. She felt herself smile and reach out towards the small fingers reaching back for her.

She jerked up and was met with the familiar smell of mustiness. She looked around and saw she was still at the dugout inn, and she felt an undeniable dread. Her hand was extended and she slowly moved it down, feeling the familiar emptiness she felt everyday. She threw her head back down and sighed, looking up at the ceiling. _Was that real?  
_ It felt almost painful to think about her dream, the lushness of it compared to the present. __

The door opened, and her eyes darted over towards the doorway, where MacCready was walking in. He looked over and held up his hands.

"Am I interrupting something?" She relaxed her expression and shook her head.

"Sorry, what time is it?" She pushed herself up in bed and looked around the room sleepily.

"10, you got big plans for today or what?" He sat down and started to shove supplies into his pack.

" I...I think i'm ready to go after Kellogg." She watched him stop and look up at her. " But first I want to take care of your gunner problem, for good." He sat up and put his arms on each side of the chair, looking over at her with a serious aura.

" You sure about this boss? These aren't some loosely organized pack of raiders in an alley." He looked at her almost expecting her to retract her offer.

She inched to the edge of the bed and started to slip into her vault suit under the blanket. It zipped up to her stomach, and she got up and finished zipping it over her white cropped tank. Her hair got wound up in a loosely twisted bun, and she looked over at him. He looked back over at her around the same time, and looked embarrassed. _Fuck.  
_ Quickly she looked away and cleared her throat.

" I said, I'd do this for you and I meant it." She grabbed her pack and let it slide into place, heading for the door. It was hard for her to say something meaningful or witty after that dream. Not to mention the splitting pain deep inside of her head, made her more impatient. Along with the fear that she wasn't sure if she should remember what happened so far in the past. It was too painful, most days to even think about what an area had looked like before the bombs fell. She'd blink and be walking down pre war streets, and navigating through crowds of people. She didn't want to talk about it, especially to MacCready...Maybe Nick would understand. He'd been working on a backlog of cases whenever she'd go to visit the office. Juniper sighed and pushed the Inn's entrance open, and was met with the now too familiar commute through the old baseball field.

"Are they seriously shooting at that brahmin?" They both were crouched behind a huge pillar of the old highway. The sun was high and she felt sweat on the back of her neck, annoyed Juniper grabbed the top of her vault suit and tried to air it out. Above them gunners were cheering and laughing while the brahmin struggled to avoid the heavy laser fire. " Take out the guards by the lift, with all the other noise it's going to get drowned out." MacCready nodded and steadied himself, watching the first guard's movement through the scope. Within a second the guard was on the ground and the cheering continued. It was impressive, but also a little unsettling. She adjusted her footing and watched his scope follow the next guard.  
He took out the second guard when he walked around the shack by the lift. The third was farther away and Juniper took him out easily with her combat rifle. They both sighed with relief when all three deaths had gone unnoticed.

" Do you have a plan for this? Or are you just gunna go in guns blazing?" He curled his lip a bit and gave her a side glance. Juniper shot him a look.

" As a general of the minutemen, I always go in with a plan." She said smiling, but MacCready looked away rolling his eyes, and when he looked back she was gone. He stood up and saw her dashing towards the lift, while everyone above was distracted.

" Gunna get us both killed..." Holding back a smile, he slung the rifle over his shoulder and ran after her. Right when he made it on she had activated the lift, he was still riding the adrenaline, realizing he was finally about to take out both winlock and barnes.

" I'm going in and i'll clear a way for you." Juniper readied her laser rifle, Danse had given her. And nodded at MacCready. " Hang back and move forward after I clear the first few." The lift stopped and she slowly crouched and moved forward.

"Scanning…" Juniper froze with fear when she heard the metal voice, and looked up at the vacant bus and saw a red glow. She lowered her hand slowly onto her grenade belt and reached for a pulse grenade, and slowly tossed it into a window. She heard the assultron's core intensefiying, moments before the grenade went off.

" New plan Mac" She looked back at him, " Don't die." He turned to his 2 o'clock and fired. She turned and saw that he took a gunner down moments before he shot at her. _Fuck_

"Eyes up front, they're moving in fast." MacCready yelled towards her and she complied by sprinting to the far side of the bus. Through holes in the metal she saw, a gunner looking through the same hole and she jumped backwards. She fell down and kicked a new hole through the bottom and shot at the combat boot she saw. He tumbled down and she now had a clear shot at the back of his helmet.

"Fuck! She shot my fucking foot!" Before he could saw anything else she fired once more and his helmet melted from the laser. The smell of burning flesh washed over her and she turned her head to see MacCready shoving the stock of his rifle into a gunner's neck. The gunner's neck twisted unnaturally and she watched him fall backwards through the bottom of the freeway. MacCready looked over at her, chest breathing heavily. He raised his rifle again and she felt the vibration of the shot run through the concrete. Juniper got up and ran back over to the other side of the bus. Right when she rounded the corner, Barnes tackled her causing her to fumble backwards towards the elevator.

" Should have never came here." He snarled thumbs pressing hard into her trachea. Her eyes water and she felt his weight on her completely pushing the air out of her body. Tears ran down the sides of her temples and she felt things getting hazy. _No not like this...Shaun…  
_ Then the image of Shaun ran through her mind, then she saw the baby from her dream. Her eyes focused on Barnes and with whatever she had left in her body she threw her knee straight into his crotched. He screamed and loosened his grip enough for her to pushed him to the side freeing her right hand. Her hand scrambled and felt the laser rifle she breathlessly unloaded into the side of his face. His body slumped down and Juniper coughed heavily as she pushed herself away from him. Her hands felt tingly and it made it harder to crawl behind a concrete barricade. MacCready's voice broke through her haze.

" Taking heavy fire over here!" His voice sounded strained and she pushed herself up with the rifle and ran through the next bus. It was cut in half and she saw a gunner in power armour about to reach MacCready behind his Barricade.

" Hey, Nosebleed!" Juniper raised her rifle and shot through the gunner's leg that had no power armour attached. He fell backwards, and MacCready got up and leaned against the concrete and shot through the power armour helmet. The first shot cracked the glass and after the fourth, a trickle of blood ran through the cracks onto the concrete. He let out a breathe that he had been holding in and sat on the barricade. Juniper steadied herself and walked gingerly towards him. She sat down next to him on the barricade and half laughed and wheezed. MacCready scoffed and looked up, steadying his breathing.

" So, how does it feel being rid of the gunners." Juniper managed to say just above a whisper, and looked at him from the side. The tension in his face eased and he raised his eyebrows not opening his eyes.

" Like, I finally don't have to keep looking over my shoulder." She looked down and saw crimson soaking through his right thigh.

" You're bleeding, how do you not feel that?" She searched through her pockets and found a stimpack and jabbed it into his upper thigh. He hissed and slowly he breathed a sigh of relief.

" It's just a scratch from the metal in the barricade." He motioned towards the edge of the exposed concrete. "Don't tell me you use to be a nurse before all this." She scoffed and nudged him. He chuckled and looked at her. She watched his gaze stop on her neck and she shrugged.

" What happened to your neck?" His eyes darkened and he reached out towards her. Juniper felt her heart stop when she felt his fingers graze her what must be bruised neck. She winced a bit and he retracted his hand. " Is that why you're breathing harder?" He rummaged through his battered trench coat's pockets. Juniper forced a smirk and lowered onto the floor so she could rest against the barricade.

"What, did you think I was just really out of shape?" She rested her head against the concrete and forced a smile as she shut her eyes.

" I shouldn't have moved forward so fast." He inserted a stimpack as carefully as he could next to where Juniper still felt Barnes's hands against her neck. She opened her eyes and looked over towards him. He was staring intensely at the empty stimpack, looking like he was off in a distant memory." I was so quick to get revenge on Winlock and Barnes…" She tried to meet his gaze and he looked away filled with what looked like guilt.

" MacCready, I made the choice to come up here. Look around, it's done. We bea-"

" That's not the point!" His voice rang through the empty freeway. Juniper jerked back defensively and he saw her recoil. He ran his ran down his face and grunted.

" I didn't mean to yell, I just.." Juniper didn't dare breathe, she just looked up into his blue eyes. The eyes she rarely really looked at. They looked so deeply blue, deep enough to get lost into.

MacCready met her gaze, and felt himself entranced by the deep tone of grey. Like a hurricane he felt drawn in closer. He stopped when he saw her eyes look glassy with tears. He felt pangs of guilt for what happened to her, and how he felt.

" Hey.." He reached out to her and they both froze. He recoiled his hand and looked away. _What the heck is wrong with me?_

Juniper looked down and felt her face flush, nervously she wiped her tear away and stared at the ground. "Look, you're the only person that's alive that I know has my back. " He cut off and he looked out over the landscape of the overpass. " I have a lot of baggage that I'm not ready to unload." Juniper couldn't meet his gaze. She had gotten use how things were now, how every time she stepped outside a city there was a chance she wouldn't come back. How people expected her to magically fix every problem boston had accumulated over 200 years.

 _This is so fucking awkward, is this how he sees me? Do I seem that desperate?_ It wasn't that she didn't like the kid, but that's just it. He's a kid compared to 200 years.

"You're a good person, I ju-" She stood up and forced an awkward smile.

"We should get going." Is all she managed to get out before she got up and walked towards the elevator. MacCready watched her slowly and wordlessly got up to follow her down. He waited for her to move east back towards diamond city, but she never did. Instead she just kept walking north, avoiding hostiles while walking silently. When he got a chance he would sneak side glances over towards her, often staring at the bruises on her neck that he never asked how she got.

Juniper wasn't able to say anything after he pushed her away. She felt humiliated and guilty, what made it worse is that she doesn't know what she was expecting. _God, We're both widows and for all I know he could have lost her more recently than I lost Al…_ She looked out over towards the lake north of sunshine co op. _What about Al…_ She felt herself cringe, she was in between feeling guilty but not at the same time. MacCready had stopped and looked at the lake.

"Beautiful.." He said just above a whisper, she looked at him. He was so memorized by it she felt guilty that she'd seen it before the bombs.

"It is." She replied just as quiet before she kept walking around it towards sanctuary. MacCready followed in tow.

The sun had started to set, and MacCready was anxious. He knew they weren't exactly talking at the moment, but he didn't want to be walking out in the open after dark. He eyed the cliffs to the left of them. He watched the blood leaves float in a swampy body water, and saw a dark reflection on the water. He stopped and reached out for her right arm, she stopped and wordlessly followed his gaze. The dark reflection left the cover of the boulder and appeared about 20 yards away from them.

" Yao guai.." MacCready kneeled down and pulled her down with him. She reached for her laser rifle and he reached for his rifle. The creature was still unsure of their presence, until Juniper reloaded. _Fuck._ He quickly tried to aim for the mutated bear, and it jerked to the left at the last second the bullet only grazing it's back. He lunged forward and MacCready did something stupid. Without thinking he pushed Juniper out of the way, and it sunk it's claws into his shoulders.

Juniper felt the wind being knocked out of her, she looked back just in time to see MacCready being pinned by the yao guai. _No no no._ Without thinking she charged the creature and pulled out the combat knife she'd pocketed at the interchange. She plunged the knife into the back of it's skull and kept pushing. She felt hot liquid falling in between her fingers, it screamed out in pain and jerked upwards. Holding on as tight as she could, she kept pushing it further until it slowly slumped down and she fell down with it. Juniper scrambled to get up off of the corpse, she ran over to MacCready and looked down at him. Dropping the knife she slumped next to him, he'd lost a lot of blood. " Mac.." Panicked she searched for stimpacks, her hands shakily jabbed the first two into each shoulder. She tossed them aside and searched for med x, she only had one syringe left and she jabbed that into his left shoulder. If they were going to be stuck out here for awhile, he'd need his left arm to aim. The med x must have started to work because his expression relaxed. " MacCready..? Hey." He didn't respond, and she realized how close they were to sanctuary. Scanning through her pack she found the flare gun Preston gave her, she aimed it straight up and fired. She heard it go off but she didn't look up, either Preston was going to get here or something far worse. She didn't care, all she knew was that she wouldn't be able to carry MacCready to Sanctuary. He was still bleeding, not as bad but enough that her knee closed to his left shoulder was covered in his blood. She felt sick, and dug through her bag and found her nice folded up blanket and ripped a big piece off and ripped that into two pieces. Juniper wrapped up his shoulder carefully, and leaned over to wrap the other one, MacCready moaned softly. She looked back down and saw his arm reach out to her, she took his hand and smiled at him sadly.

" Lu...Lucy." He whispered softly. Juniper felt her chest tighten. _Even while he's passed out on death's doorstep._ The feeling was so heavy, she could only look away. She held onto his hand tighter, and waited for whatever happened next.

MacCready felt the sun on his face, he tried to shift his weight but couldn't. He opened his eyes slowly, and didn't know where he was. He heard people talking far away, but couldn't understand what they were saying. He looked to the left and saw another bed pushed up against the one he was in. The room was decorated with antiques in perfect condition, and canvases with dirty artwork littered the walls. _Is this her house?_  
While he was looking at bureau, a small preserved notebook caught his eye. He pushed his weight up on his shoulders and tried to make out the letters over the pain.  
" _Dream Journal?"_  
Juniper's cut through the other chatter, and he dropped back down onto the bed. He looked over his shoulders and saw they were both bandaged up and he was shirtless. He thought back and remembered the yao guai and tried harder to listen to what she was saying.

"Pressie, calm down I'm fine." The sweetness in her voice, steadied MacCready. __

_She's safe._

"General, you've been gone for weeks. We still haven't retaken the castle and you still haven't found your son." The man's voice sounded irritated. There was a pause.

"Preston, I'm just one person. A whole lot has happened between the vault and now. If you want to retake the castle so bad we will. I was waiting until our numbers were higher, but obviously you value what could be a pile of rubble over the lives of our men." MacCready felt the long pause and felt the heaviness of the conversation. _She's never talked like that to me, or anybody else when I'm around._ " If you want me to be a general then start treating me like one. You came to me and asked for my help. I can't keep walking around with the weight of the world on my shoulders."

Hesitantly the other man spoke. "I..I understand General. I apologize, I should put more faith in your leadership." MacCready heard Juniper sigh after a few seconds.

" Preston, come by later and we can talk about it in more detail ok? I..I didn't mean the last part, it's just been a hard few days." She almost snorted, " Ok a hard few months.." Her voice didn't seem as rigid. MacCready looked through the curtains of the room and saw settlers carrying produce and supplies. The streets were lined with oil lanterns, which MacCready smirked at. _Just enough light to be safe and not enough to draw a lot of attention._

"I'll see you later tonight, and try to get some rest general." He heard his footsteps leave the house and saw the man walk towards the front of the settlement. He looked around the room, and saw ripped fabric on the floor. He eyed it closer, and realized it was her good blanket. _Did she rip this up for me?_ A warm feeling spread across his chest and he pressed his hand to his bandaged right shoulder.

" Hey." He looked up and saw Juniper in the doorway. Her hair was still up, and she looked tired. Her button up had the sleeves rolled up halfway and her jeans loosely fit her.

" Man..I could really go for a cigarette" The way he said it, put her mind at ease. Juniper came and sat down next to him. She searched through his bag until she found an already opened pack of cigarettes.

" These things will kill ya you know?" She handed him the pack and her flip lighter smiling at him.  
" Not to mention, they're nothing like they use to be."

He gave her a side glance." What won't nowadays?" He grinned back at her, and she looked away from him out towards her settlement. He studied her features from the side.

" I never properly thanked you for helping me be rid of the gunners." He saw her roll her eyes and he waited before he lit his cigarette."Do you remember when I told you about little Lamplight?" he tossed the lighter over towards his bag.

She thought for a second and turned to look at him. " The place where there's no adults, right? Where you grew up?" He nodded exhaling a puff of smoke towards the ceiling fan.

" I told you that after I left, I wandered the capital wasteland for awhile and eventually took up with the gunners. Even when I was with the gunners I was always watching my back, every man for himself kinda thing. That's why I ended up leaving the things I did, the things I saw... it got to be too much." MacCready felt uneasy, and he hoped it wasn't noticeable. " Look I know I can be a pain in the ass...I mean." He paused annoyed. " I know I can come off being arrogant and sometimes I come off like I want to be alone." MacCready stopped again and looked out of the window besides him. " Nothing could be farther from the truth, being alone scares the heck out of me. We've been traveling together for awhile now, and I realized how much I missed having someone I could depend on." He turned and looked at her, his blue eyes focused. " I just wanted you to know that I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that it stays this way. I want to keep being someone you can depend on."

Juniper felt her heart beating so fast it hurt. " MacCready, you don't have to thank me you saved my ass more times than I can count." _Besides you're a hell of a shot._ There's no way she was going to tell him that though.

" Look I don't forget that sh- err things like that." Before he could say anything else Juniper nudged him with her shoulder.

" Hey you don't have to worry about cursing around me, It doesn't bother me." His eyes saddened and he avoided her eyesight as he sighed.

" I figured you'd say something about it sooner or later. It's not about you, it's about a promise…" He flicked his ashes into the tray next on the bedside table. _There's no going back after this.  
_ " When I left the capital wasteland, I didn't just leave little lamplight behind I left my family behind too. The name you heard Vadim mention Lucy, she was my wife. We had a son named Duncan. I promised Duncan that I'd clean up my act and try to be a better person." He chuckled, " It must sound pretty stupid, coming from a guy who shoots people for a living huh?" He took a drag from his cigarette, and she turned her body to face him.

" You must have had a good reason to leave them...well him." She paused and remembered what MacCready had told Vadim a few nights ago. _If his wife died who's taking care of Duncan?  
_ " Who's taking care of your son Duncan?"

" My son, he's sick. I don't know what's wrong with him." His voice sounded so far away, and like it hurt to even say the words out loud. "One day he's fine running around our settlement...then he took a fever and these blue boils popped up all over his body. Last I saw him he could hardly even walk, I couldn't ask him to come with me…" His mouth went dry. " I don't know how much longer he's going hold on for." He felt Juniper intertwined his fingers with hers, and he looked at her.

" Why didn't you tell me this sooner? You know I'll help you find a doctor or whatever Duncan needs." He scoffed and furrowed his brows.

" You've already done so much for me, It feels shi- sleazy asking for anything else."

" You're not asking for yourself though you're asking for Duncan, you're son." MacCready couldn't believe his ears. _I might be able to finally do this._ He laughed, even though it hurt his shoulders.  
"Hey, be careful of your shoulders." She frowned and he smiled back at her.

"I'm not sure what I did to be this lucky, but I'm not going to question it." Juniper felt her face flush at his words.

" A-anyway, who or what do we need?" She tried not to stutter and failed. MacCready put his cigarette out in the ashtray and retracted his hand from hers. She felt herself wanting to reach back out for the comfort of his touch. The need to feel someone else's warmth...It was maddening. When she thought about what she was thinking, and she put her hands under her legs. He pushed his feet out of the covers and onto the floor, finding his boots He started to put them on as he continued to talk.

" It's not going to be easy, I'm not going to lie to you. I tried doing it myself before, but there were so many feral ghouls I barely made it out of there alive. A few months ago I bumped into someone named Sinclair, he claimed his friend caught some kind of disease. I Didn't take him seriously until he said his partner broke out in blue boils. He dug up information on a place called Med-Tek Research, they even managed to get the building's security codes." He paused, and pulled his undershirt over his bandages."Unfortunately, he died before they could go. That's no coincidence though right? Med-Tek has to be where the cure is." He looked at her desperately. Juniper looked down and scrolled through her pipboy over to the map.

" I haven't found that place yet, do you have the coordinates?" MacCready nodded, and rushed over towards the other side of the room. He kneeled and looked through the map.

" I'll mark where it is, and we can go out there when you get the chance." He looked up at her, and held onto her arm. "Even if it takes me the rest of my life...I'll repay this debt to you, I swear it. We'll cure my son...Duncan and I'll help you find Shaun..no matter what it takes." Juniper wanted to say something, but hearing Shaun's name flooded her head with emotions.

" MacCready.." Was all she could say before Codsworth appeared in the doorway.

" Mum, the preparations for tonight's supper are almost complete? Do you have any recommendations for the menu?" Juniper jumped away from MacCready at the sound of his voice and He almost fell over.

" No Codsworth, whatever you make i'm sure it'll be wonderful." The handy unit seemed to hover higher.

" Oh mum. Very good." He hovered out of the room and Juniper looked back at MacCready.

"I know Sturges was looking for me, I'll see you around supper." She stood up and looked back at him scowling. " Try not to do anything that would reopen your wounds." MacCready looked stunned, and grinned.

" I know, I know, no heavy lifting, and don't operate a motorized vehicle." He walked back over to the other side of the bed and put his rifle on his lap. Juniper smiled when she knew he wasn't looking and left the room.

The sun was hung high in the sky, and Juniper had a list of things to do before it went down. Sturges was over towards the far east side of the settlement, steel parts in hand as he eyed the wall. Her plan to surround the settlement with scraps from other projects had been going over well. So far from what Preston told her, the wall had stopped 2 groups of raiders and a lost gang of super mutants. She felt guilty she hadn't been there for the attacks but that's why she decided on the wall to begin with. The radio broadcast had also attracted unwanted attention, but it had brought in 6 new settlers. It unsettled her to think people could tune into their frequency and know exactly where they were.

" Workin hard or hardly workin?" he turned around and returned her grin. His hands always seemed to be covered in something, whether it be dirt or grease. This always made him seem more approachable. Although she always had ideas for the settlement, Sturges was the only one who made them realistic and do able. One morning she'd ran across the street in her sleeping clothes to the workshop, telling Sturges all about her idea of surrounding the settlement in a huge fenced in area. He was usually up before other settlers, and he had just listened to the idea at first. First he had just flatly said no, but Juniper followed him around the whole day making her case. Preston had watched from afar just shaking his head, knowing both parties were equally as stubborn. Eventually he handed her a blueprints for the fence, and she just stared at it. She didn't even realize he had been drawing them up.

" You know me, always into somethin." He looked over behind her and she turned to look. Jun was crouched and handing a carrot blossom to a little girl, she took the flower and gave him a smile holding it gently.

" Looks like Jun is coming around, how old is she?" She looked back at Sturges and he replied without looking back at her.

" About as old as his son was." Juniper looked back and saw Marcy smiling back at Jun when he stood up. He reached out for her hand and she intertwined her fingers with his. When her features weren't so harsh she looked so peaceful. Sturges interrupted as her thoughts had drifted to shaun. "Her parent's were killed by raiders, she wandered around until she found a group of settlers heading here. She needs some time, but eventually she might end up with a new mom and dad." She felt herself smiling, and watched the girl as she sat on the ledge by the workshop. She was smelling the flower and admiring it carefully.

"What's her name?"

" You won't believe me." Sturges chuckled, and Juniper turned back around. He sighed and looked at her, eyebrows raised. " Flower." Suddenly the blossom made sense,she wanted to run over and hug the little girl. Knowing how confused the little girl would be, she turned her attention towards the steel scraps.

" I think it's cute." she almost whispered. "Do you need help with patching the walls of jericho?" She looked at the wall, and pushed on areas to gauge the strength. Not bad for something made with centuries old junk.

" I could always use the help, you know how to weld?" He handed her his blow torch and watched her as she examined it.

" Vaguely, but I'm a fast learner." She smiled and he shrugged.

" I'll take what I can get, seeing as how you're the only other person who builds things... besides yours truly." He lifted up a scrap of steel and positioned it over a slight crack on a plank of metal.

"Do you mind, lending me any notes you have on modifying power armor?" He raised his eyebrow suspiciously.

" If I'm going to be some hard ass, policing the commonwealth, I should at least modify that power armor right? I found some new parts and lugged them back with me, after this could you take a look?" Juniper waited for an answer with baited breath. She could figure it out herself, but that would take more time than what she had. Especially if she wanted to get Shaun back before Christmas.

" Alright, alright, I'll take a look. Here wear goggles, I'm not gunna have you go blind over some scrap fencing." She grabbed the goggles and fitted them over her head, and had her first welding lesson.


	10. Where you Belong

**AN: Okay, I know these are coming out kinda weirdly paced but long story short I hurt my back at work and have been back and fourth to doctors and PT. Might need an MRI, etc. :c So I've been cooped up and have been trying to write more, you can benefit from my pain ;~; I usually don't ask but I'd** **appreciate** **reviews if you guys are so inclined. :3  
Also sorry this one is a little short, I really wanted to get this out there and it seemed like a good place to end. **

The piano played quietly against the soft hum among the irradiated insects in the distance. Juniper silently wondered, if they were louder in the summer, If time really stopped being so important anymore. The minutemen flag that served as her curtain in her kitchen had been moved to the side, and she was contemplatively looking out of the window. The yard was still mostly unchanged, eventually she wanted to plant something in her old garden. She had told MacCready they were going to get his son's cure, but the plans weren't concrete. She'd been repairing Sanctuary's crumbling houses and electrical systems for almost two weeks. God two weeks, she sighed softly. She'd been reading up on as much handyman material as she could find. Although sometimes it felt frustratingly pointless, one strong hit to the settlement and it'd all be gone. The constant uncertainty was exhausting, but up until recently she was so busy it seemed so distant. She wondered where MacCready was, he'd taken up some of the nighty sniper watches at the front gate lately. Most of the candles lining her living room had been extinguished, all but the one on the island across from the table. She'd tried to make her house seem more like a home and not a crypt. Even with new decorations and the growing collection of preserved plates and coffee cups things felt empty. The playing continued almost sadly, while the hedges in the back yard rustled in the wind. A chill ran up her spine, and she secured the blanket around her shoulders. It was mid december after all.

"Gener- err, Juniper, do you have a moment?" Preston was in her doorway with his usual attire. She smiled, and waved him in. He walked across the kitchen and stood across from her.

"You can sit down, did you want coffee, or Nuka cola?" She went to get up and he held a hand up stopping her.

"No thanks." She looked worried and sat back down, Preston pulled out the chair. "Old habits, huh?" He smiled a little and sat down across from her. Nocturne started to play on her pipboy and she frowned turning it down. He watched her inquisitively.

" It's my least favorite, always sounds so melancholy." She cupped her glass, and smiled sheepishly at him. She had only had a small amount of bourbon for the warmth, she still hadn't drank what Jack had given her the last time they saw each other..Her hair was washed and curled naturally around her jawline and down by her collar bone. He leaned forward, his arms resting on the wooden table.

" I've been wanting to ask you, about something. I-I don't know" He broke off and looked out the window. He inhaled and looked back at her with his dark eyes determined but with a hint of sadness. " Is it as hard for you, as it is for me to be friends while trying to rebuild the minutemen?" When she didn't say anything he continued. "I want you to be our general there's no one better for the job but, I want to be able to still be friends after this. I don't know if that's going to be possible." Thunder rumbled far off in the distance, and they both sat there quietly.

" What the hell are you talking about?" Sounding sharper than she wanted. " Preston, I know this has been difficult, and confusing but jesus." She leaned backward into her chair, he looked so lost. " Is it because of me being the general? If that's it I don't want it, I don't want to be some figure who reunites the commonwealth while losing ties to the people I care about."

"Sometimes.." He started off softly. " Sometimes, I think about everyone I've lost during this fight. Not just people, settlements too and I'm not sure if there's a middle ground for me. This rebuild this...has to work." He said it so desperately, she couldn't look him in the eyes.  
" Juniper this is all I have left, and I'm not the only one." She felt so alone in that instant, tears threatened to surface.

" Preston, It may sound selfish and I'm sorry but for my sake please try. Please try to find that middle ground." She stood from her table. " I um, I'm going to go for a walk." He watched her go through the back door and sighed.

The night air felt good on her flushed cheeks, everything felt so crushing again. Her rose coloured dress swayed in the wind. Time felt so abstract, why did it even matter what happened to the minutemen? Or the Commonwealth for that matter? They'd survived two hundred years without some like her. Why had all of this fallen on her shoulders, all she wanted was her son back. _I can never get Al back._ She kept walking down the dirt path towards the vault and stopped when she heard her footsteps on the wooden bridge. Her feet felt cold, Juniper took the railing and let her head fall a bit. " I forgot to put on fucking shoes."  
 _If he could see me now, would Al even recognize me?  
_ Swan lake overture came on softly and she smiled. After a brief glimpse around and when she knew no one was awake, or watching she put her blanket on the railing and embraced the cool winter air. The stream hummed under the decaying boards, she let her toes prop her up higher.

" I might not remember everything." She paused and thought back to the huge white house on the cliff from her dreams. The image of the tiny little baby girl flashed in her mind, how did she know it was a girl? " But I can remember every single fucking ballet lesson." Juniper tried to let the bitterness fade as she turned the volume on her pipboy up louder.

Her arms stretched out on each side and her left leg went up behind her. She swayed and let her muscle memory guide her through each stance. The adrenaline was enough to ignore the numbness in her toes, the melody picked up in tempo and she matched it's intensity. The smell of rain flooded her senses, but she couldn't stop. She didn't want to. All of the fighting, the scavenging, the constant fight for survival in a world she didn't belong in, everything melted away in the rain. The overture began it's final bar, and she slowly let her weight down again. The rain was drizzling softly, and the moon was barely visible through the dusty clouds. The next composition came on, turning she started to walk back to sanctuary.

" I…" She stopped quickly and looked up. MacCready wasn't wearing his duster or his hat, he looked lost for words. Juniper looked back at the stream.

" Sometimes, It's all just so much. I didn't mean for anybody to see me, I don't know.." She felt so embarrassed it was suffocating, her arms were crossed and she held onto her sides.

" Whatever it is that you're feeling, please tell me." He walked closer and she backed away a little. " I can't begin to imagine what it was like waking up to..to this." He looked around the landscape and back at her. He'd never asked her this before, never sounded so genuine.

" I can't.." She softly shook her head at him, she couldn't hold her tears back anymore and they streamed down her face.

" What? What can't you do? The things I've seen you do, the people you've helped." When he reached for her this time, he didn't recoil like he did at the interchange. He held onto her arm and searched for an answer. His hand was warm, his fingertips calloused softly stroking her forearm. How long had it been since she felt someone touch her?

" I don't know If I can be the person they all want, If I can make it out of all of this alive. What if there's no place for me in this world." Her voice cut off and she shivered. Her hair was starting to stick to the back of her neck from the rain. _It's not fair, It's not fair to dump this on him._

" There's no place for any of us, look around. None of us should even be alive, but here we are and all we can do is muddle through it. I know I'm just a hired gun, but I want to be more. You've been helping me realize that, and not just that... you've given me the chance to do it." He paused and Juniper held her breathe. He was so close, closer than he'd ever been before.

" I don't know what I'm suppose to do, even when I try and do the right thing it's never enough." Juniper bit her lip and looked down trying to hold in the welled up frustration. " At first I just was doing things, without really thinking. I wanted Shaun back, but there was always...god something else. I'm just exhausted...I haven't even found my goddamn son." Her voice cracked and MacCready pulled her close into a tight embrace. He smelled strongly of gunpowder and stale cigarette smoke, his arms were more muscular than she thought and they wound themselves around her protectively. She let herself deflate into his arms, reaching her hands up onto his sides. They stood like that for awhile. The rain started to trickle down the old trees and the hubflowers that surrounded the bridge.

MacCready felt her small frame shake, and held her as she sobbed softly. He waited until she steadied a bit and spoke. " The wasteland can tear people apart, I'm not going to let that happen to you. Do you understand?" She nodded into his shoulder, and he leaned his head against hers. He wasn't sure how it ended up this way, or what was going to happen next. It was terrifying, caring about someone like this and it wasn't suppose to work out this way. It gave him the urge to fight to protect her from the cruelties that may lie ahead. " I don't know if I believe in fate or destiny or whatever. But I'm happy that you came in the third rail that night."

It started to rain a little harder and he lifted an arm up to move her wet hair from her forehead. She looked up at him and he looked back at her, he felt his body burning. Her eyes looked so pleading, he felt drawn closer and stopped with his nose touching hers. Her breath caught in her throat, and she moved her head to the side. " Is this really ok?" His hand was cupped against her face and he whispered softly.

" I don't know, but I'm here for you too." Juniper said it so softly and she moved her head back towards him. " I know you still love Lucy, and I still love Al. I don't know If I'll ever stop." Her voice cracked a little and he pulled her waist closer. His head tilted against hers, she shut her eyes and his breath against her skin made her shudder. " Should we really do this?"

MacCready laughed a little, " Of course not, but I don't know If I can resist your charms anymore." She opened her eyes and moved her head back.

" What! You're the one who.." She paused. _Has it really all been me?_ She felt so small, and looked down. " Has it really been all me?"

" Of all the things to get hung up on." He half scoffed and chuckled looking away. She looked back at him startled. " I'm not saying we just jump into things right now, I just needed you to know I'm here for you. You've let me lean on you so much, It's time you started to lean on me." His voice made it clear he wasn't doing this on a whim. Thunder crackled above and Juniper looked at his wet hair laughing. " Oh yeah? You should see your mop, I didn't know your hair was so curly." He smirked, and she smiled back at his soaking wet face.

" I usually try to keep it straightened because it's easier to manage, should we, uh?" She nodded over towards the path and he let her go, she missed his embrace but the rain wasn't letting up. They both started running back towards Sanctuary, laughing as they both were getting covered in mud.

They made it to the house, and MacCready ran in first and she shut the door behind him. She felt her clothes sticking to her, and she looked up to see his shirt was transparent and was clinging to every curve and muscle. She felt her cheeks burn, and he coughed awkwardly.

" I'm gunna go get changed uh, see you in the morning." He hurried into the bathroom and she waited until the door shut for her to run into the bedroom. She looked at her dress and gasped, her dress was soaking wet and her breasts perked almost straight through the fabric. She grabbed her sleeping clothes and tossed them onto the bed. After she toweled herself off, she threw on the warm loose clothes. The bathroom door clicked and she heard his footsteps in the hallway. He stopped and heard hesitation in his voice. " Goodnight."

She tried to respond quickly, " Yeah goodnight." There was a pause and she heard his footsteps fade into the living room. MacCready had been sleeping on the couch since his shoulders healed. She wanted him closer, but there wasn't any other rooms in her cramped starter house. The roof had been repaired decently to keep most of the rain out, but she still had small bowls in certain problem areas. A rain droplet fell and ripples into a small bucket by the door. She fell onto the bed on her back and let out a long sigh. The room was lite by a small candle on the drawers in front of the larger window in the room. The light it gave off sometimes almost unhinged her more than the things she had done trying to find her son. It always reminded her of how alone she was. Lightning struck hard close by and she jumped, the rain wasn't going to let up. She leaned up and eyed the almost overflowing bucket. Grumpily she got up grabbing it carefully and headed to the bathroom to dump it. Juniper heaved it over the sink and let it drain, slowly. _MacCready must be asleep by now._

She carefully tiptoed out into the dark living room, making her way for the bowl by the door. It looked less than half full and she shrugged. Sheepishly she looked over the couch at MacCready, he was laying on his side without a blanket. _Why?  
_ Then she remembered, cursing quietly she looked around the room for a replacement.  
 _I used his blanket and forgot it at the bridge.  
_ She brushed past his arm and he softly tugged at her shirt.

" What're ya lookin for?" He said sleepily, she shifted uncomfortably.

" A blanket for you. It's too cold to sleep without one" He shifted without opening his eyes.

" Thought you left that at the bridge?" She paused, how can he be so snarky when he's half asleep? She jerked away, then regretting it sighed.

" Come on, let's go to bed." He opened his eyes dubiously at her. He stared at her so intensely she felt his gaze burn on her skin somehow. When she stood there waiting he spoke.

" Okay." He got up and followed after her, Juniper felt her heart beating wildly.

 _He said we didn't have to rush into it, nothing's going to happen._  
The thought of something maybe happening made her thighs push together uncomfortably. She stopped at the side of the bed closest to the door.

" Umm, what side do you want?" She didn't turn around, and stared at the bed.

" Closest to the door is good, If that's alright?" She turned and saw him eyeing her hesitantly.  
" If you want me to go back-"

" No!" She said quickly and she looked away. " I want you here, I don't want you to sit out there." She said so softly he almost didn't hear it. He smiled and extended his hand to the bed.

She crawled in first and turned towards the window, watching the curtain sway with the wind. She felt the bed dip and then his familiar warmth crept up behind her. The blanket fell softly on her body and she felt him tuck it around the both of them. He moved closer and hesitantly rested his arm on her side. That comfort he brought spread throughout her body, she reached out and pulled him closer by his arm. She felt his breath now on her neck and he nuzzled her neck with his nose, his goatee brushed against her back. She shivered and he stopped. " It tickles." He exhaled happily and brushed his lips on the back of her neck. The sensation was almost too much for her, and she held her breath.

" Goodnight Juniper." His voice sounded so husky and yet so peaceful. Her head spun, while his scent filled her senses.

" Goodnight MacCready." She whispered, almost instantly she felt his muscles relax around her. The sensation of sleeping so close to him, she smiled and held onto his hand tighter. As she fell into a deep sleep she felt him squeeze her hand back.


	11. Taking The Fort

**AN: OK, this chapter gets a little gruesome at the Kellogg part. I apologize but I really wanted to do the scene justice,  
also There's not really an excuse for not uploading chapters for so long. ;^;  
Physical Therapy is really difficult and time consuming! **

The brisk December chill ran down Juniper's spine as she and MacCready headed south to Fort Hagen. It had been a long time coming and finally she felt ready to confront Kellogg. With all of Preston's training, and With him constantly assigning her settlements, her experience in combat had excelled everyone's expectations. It had it's downsides though, the overwhelming outcry for help in the commonwealth, had been a huge distraction for finding Shaun. _  
Not anymore though, I'm finding him today._

Although MacCready and her had admitted the start of their feelings for eachother, they both were hesitant. It had only been a few weeks since they met, although the tension made it feel like otherwise. Juniper tried not to think about the night before, the way his hard body felt against hers. _  
_  
"What do you think he'll look like?" His question broke the accidental silence. Jujniper felt her cheeks flush a little.

" What do you mean?" He shrugged and looked off the road towards the Mirelurks in a body of water. They were far enough away that they didn't pose a threat, but he stilled watched them carefully.

" Valentine said everyone saw a 10 year old right, what do you think he looks like now?"  
 _That's right, Would I even recognize him anymore?_

Juniper glanced over her laser rifle as she thought. " I really don't know, I was hoping they'd just be rumours." Sighing, she kicked a piece of the crumbling freeway. He could even look more like Al than her, he was so young there's no way to be certain.  
" It's too good to be true though, him still being a baby. I want him to be, but on the other hand trying to look after settlements while raising a toddler?" How do people even do that after the bombs fell? There's no way to ever be sure that your safe, even if you live in Diamond city.

" It can be hard, but it's not impossible." MacCready said solemnly. The conversation about his son replayed in her head.  
" Mac, I didn't mean anythin-"  
" I know you didn't, Don't worry about Shaun being older. We're going to get him back, you can count on that Boss." MacCready gave her a reassuring glance and squeezed her shoulder as they continued to walk. Juniper looked at him affectionately and knew he was right.  
 _What would I do without you?_

  
Fort Hagen's defenses were no match for MacCready, he took out each turret easily. Each turret that went down Juniper felt her palms starting to sweat, this was finally happening.

" The hatch is over here, there might be more down there so keep an eye out." MacCready opened the hatch on the roof that lead into Fort Hagen. Taking a deep breathe she grabbed the door and jumped down. The decay from the building wasn't as bad as others she'd been in. Parchment was littering the floors and the smell of dust was penetrating her senses. Juniper felt her throat burn, and muffled a cough.

" Is someone present?" A mechanical voice echoed through the desolate halls of the Fort. MacCready nodded over towards next corridor. Two tall all white mechanical looking humanoids briskly walked past them. Juniper grabbed MacCready's duster and jerked him back from the next room. " Curious." One of the Synths walked further than the other. Taking the opportunity Juniper signaled MacCready and she pointed her rifle at the farther away one. He nodded and waited for her to make the first move. Juniper fired 3 rounds, the first two into the backs of each artificial knee cap. The last one went through it's skull. MacCready followed suit and jabbed the synth's neck hard enough to knock its head off. More Synths piled into the room one after another, MacCready took out the ones with protective visors on, while Juniper fired swiftly at the unprotected ones. "Directive received from Kellogg, kill the intruders" A synth relayed right before MacCready smashed its skull in. He looked around at the wreckage, sweat dripping down his temple.

" I thought Synths were tougher than that?" She kicked at the exposed wires of a downed synth watching the lingering sparks. She felt herself sweating too, and blew upwards at her stray hairs. The floor they were on was slowly crumbling into the next, and she didn't want to be around when the whole thing came tumbling down.

" They usually are, these look like older models though." He was crouched over one that held a resemblance to Nick. He looked lost in thought, as he ran his hand over his goatee.

" Why would Kellogg...Jesus MacCready how involved is he with the institute?" Juniper felt her throat going dry. This wasn't going to shake her confidence down, she was getting her son back. The whole institute could be swarming under the fort, it didn't matter anymore. At the thought she felt herself straighten.

" Common, let's keep going, I keep feeling eyes on my back." MacCready looked uneasy as they descended farther into the Fort. One by one, each synth they came across was disposed of. She stopped when she saw the elevator, MacCready had walked over and pressed the down button. She felt her anxiety pushing it's way up through her arms and rising. Juniper shook, the closer she got towards her son the more started to come unhinged. They walked into the elevator without a word, the speaker buzzed when the floor was announced. The blasts from the bomb should have destroyed it but somehow Elevators still worked. Juniper took one step and heard his voice. The hairs on her arms prickled against her suit when Kellogg spoke through the speakers mocking her. MacCready searched for synths, while she walked down the the hallway.

"What do you expect to accomplish here? Leave." His voice made her shake, Juniper wasn't afraid anymore she was overflowing with what felt like rage. MacCready glanced over at her and nervously looked back towards the next hallway. Her heartbeat throbbed through her body, with each door she went through she new she was getting closer. There was going to be a confrontation, with the man who took everything from her, killed her husband in front of their newborn.

" You're in way over your head. Leave now, not a lot of people have that option." Without thinking Juniper grabbed the speaker off the wall and slammed it on the ground.  
" I'm not leaving until I have my son back, you piece of shit." Juniper looked around the hallway wildly. " Do you hear me? I'm going to fucking kill you." She started to walk towards the next door, and was grabbed by her arm.

" Hey, calm down. You need to keep your head if we're going to do this." MacCready's eyed her filled with worry. Juniper freed her arm gently, and took a steadying breath.

" When we find him, He's mine. Do you understand?" Her Eyes pierced through him, he nodded watching her push open the next door. She'd always been level headed throughout their partnership, this didn't even seem like her.

Juniper stopped in the next room, MacCready caught up and followed her gaze. A clean smaller bed with a prewar spaceship rug underneath it. There were other strangely clean and new looking containers around the room. MacCready handed her the ammo while she ran her hands over the top sheet of the bed.

" He must have kept Shaun here, He must be the 10 year old." Before MacCready could respond, the speaker buzzed again. Kellogg sighed, before he spoke.

" Alright, you made it this far, my Synths are standing down. Let's talk in the next room." Juniper watched the door open by itself and reloaded her rifle, taking a deep breath.

" Not going to rip that one down huh?" MacCready smiled at her, and she smirked holding back a laugh.

" Before we go in, I wanted to tell you.." She paused and MacCready waved his hand.

" Don't say anything yet, not before we have Shaun back." Juniper nodded back at him and they walked through the door into the hallway. Synths escorted her into the next room, where she saw him. Not a day older, and lighting a cigarette. Even in the darkness of the dim room she watched his features through the lighter. He looked at her from across the room, and snapped his lighter shut.

" And there she is, the most resilient woman in the commonwealth. Probably even the whole wasteland if I'm being honest."

" Where is my son, tell me now." Each word came out slowly, trying to steady herself. Each synth eyed her from around the room.

" Right to the point, I like that. Shaun's a good kid a little older now but I'm guessing you figured that out. You're a smart Pre war housewife." He smiled at her inhaling the stale tobacco.

" You mercenary piece of shit, tell me where he is now. If you've hurt even one hair on his head." Her teeth ground into each other, as she stood her ground watching the surprise on his face.  
" What's the saying, So close but so far away? That's Shaun." He inhaled once more, and his dark eyes looked away from her. " He's in a good place, the institute. Safer than you'd would have been able to give him anyway." Once Kellogg said he wasn't there the room felt uneven. Juniper fought to stay upright. " You'll die knowing that he's alright, you don't have to keep searching anymore."

" Nothing will stop me from finding my son, institute or not." She said through her teeth. Kellogg just laughed half heartily.

" God you're persistent, I'd like to think that if the table were turned I'd be the same way." His brows furrowed as he gestured. " That's how a parent should be." MacCready watched them both cautiously, there was only one way this was going to end. It was always going to be this way, no way around it, even with half a dozen synths pointing laser rifles at them from all angles.

" We've been talking for too long though, we all know how this ends. Are you ready?" Kellogg asked Juniper as she uncharacteristically laughed back at him taking the room by surprise.

" In a hundred years when I die, I hope I get to go to hell. Just to kill you over and over again. You ugly piece of shit." Juniper triggered two pulse grenades in her pocket and tossed them left and right. Kellogg took a square container from behind his back, MacCready aimed for his hand and quickly shot at it. Kellogg screamed dropping the Stealth boy. The grenades stunned and destroyed all but 2 synths which MacCready turned his focus on. This was her kill, she had earned that much.

Juniper crouched while the grenades had gone off and watched MacCready take aim for the other two intact synths Kellogg snarled and hastily tried to maneuver his good hand on the stealth boy. Juniper ran over to him, and landed a solid hit into the side of his face. He grabbed her rifled and pulled her and everything on the nearest desk down with him. Landing hard on her right shoulder blade she felt shards of glass from the desk and scrambled to catch her breathe. Kellogg got up faster and straddled her, using his knees to crush into her biceps. His features hardened as he punched Juniper square in the jaw. She felt searing pain as blood from his head gash dripped onto her forehead.  
" This could have been different, you could have started over. Had another kid, but you just couldn't let Shaun go huh?" He punched her again, this time she cried out. " I hate having to do this especially to women, you made me do this." Juniper ran her fingers all over the damp ground searching for her rifle, she felt both his and her blood mixing on the ground. He missed, and punched her cheek but the pain shot across her body. She screamed muffled by the blood in her mouth, and felt some of her teeth loosen when she did.

MacCready finished off the last Synth and heard her scream, a scream he'd never heard before. He ran over and saw her on the ground, with Kellogg on top of her. He fired off two shots into the back of his skull, But he didn't go down. He turned and looked at MacCready, stunned MacCready just stared at him. Kellogg reached down on the ground and fired his revolver once at MacCready. Juniper watched his body go limp and fall to the ground. " No!" Juniper yelled through her tears. Kellogg looked back at her and back at him.

"Guess that makes me two for two. Bad luck." Juniper felt her body shake, she didn't feel anything anymore. Her hands found a piece of broken glass, and her fingers dripped with blood as she dug into the back of his knee. Momentarily he relived some of the weight off her bicep, she pierced his ribcage as many times as she could. He reached out for her face and grabbed onto the side of her head getting locks of hair tangled in his fingers. Juniper gripped onto the glass hard and dove it into the side of his temple, knocking him over. Finally able to inhale, she scrambled upwards and took her rifle in hand. Adrenaline coursed through her as her hair dropped to her shoulders, she watched Kellogg try to push away from her. She lowered the rifle and shot both knee caps, Kellogg cursed loudly and she walked closer to him. Watching him reach for his revolver, she shot his good hand. He sat there in a pool of his blood, out of breath watching her.  
"I didn't stand a chance did I?" He tried to laugh and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. Juniper just watched him, feeling nothing.  
" You know, even like this you're still the spitting image of him maybe even more so." He managed to say before he coughed again, spewing more blood onto his chest. " Sometimes I wonder what his other sibling would have looked liked." Juniper tightened her grip, her face unchanging.

"Nice try, I'm not biting." She raised the rifle and fingered the trigger, but stopped when his face changed. The scar across his eye scrunched up, as he watched her carefully. The room started to feel wobbly again, and she walked over to his body and pressed the barrel against his forehead. The blood ran over the rim, and she watched him.

" The institute, had access to pre war medical records. It's the on-ly way they knew to take Shaun." Kellogg sat up pushed the barrel back with his head. " That's he figured it ou-" His face was pale, and he was starting to lose his focus. Juniper pushed the barrel harder and watched his head tilt backwards onto the filling cabinet.

" You're lying, you've been a dead man walking ever since I stepped out of that fucking vault." Kellogg shook his head as best he could.

" I take back what I said, a mother who only cares about one child. Is worse than any raider." He looked up at her and she stared back at him. She dropped down to his level, and put her rifle besides her. Juniper watched herself, wrap her hands around his throat.  
 _Stop What are you doing?  
_ Her grip tightened, as Kellogg tried to slap at Juniper's face. He clawed at her face, but she didn't feel anything.  
 _Thi is wrong..._  
She didn't even blink at she watched him struggling to break free from her grasp. It didn't sound like her voice that answered her.  
 _No It's right._  
His face kept turning darker and darker shades until she finally pushed him back with all her strength against the edge of the desk. Hearing the noise of his skull fracturing she sat there over his body. The dust in the room was floating in the floodlights on the walls. Her skull pounded, trying to figure out the word he had used.  
 _Sibling.  
_ She looked down at her hands, and started to tremble.  
 _The blood, this blood.  
_ Shaking Juniper tried to wipe it off, but she was covered in both her and Kellogg's blood. Her vision blurred, and she felt the walls starting to tower over her.  
 _Bloody Mary,  
_ She felt herself screaming, but didn't hear anything. The room started to dim, as her head throbbed harder and harder.  
 _Bloody Mary,  
_ She desperately looked away from her hands and saw the extent of what she had done. Kellogg's lifeless eyes met hers, She looked over and saw MacCready's body laying lifeless on the floor, and finally the room went black.

Juniper felt herself drift slowly, as if she was floating in water. She didn't feel any pain, and finally felt at ease.  
 _Open your eyes  
_ She was in an all white room, and felt exhausted. Juniper realized it was a hospital room, but it was a pre war one.  
 _Take a look  
_ She felt a weight placed into her arms, and looked down. "Oh my god." Tears ran down her face.  
 _Now you know what an angel looks like, Congratulations on your baby girl.  
_ The nurse left, the room leaving Juniper and the baby alone. The baby opened her eyes, Juniper smiled back at her. " Green eyes, you're so beautiful." Juniper, didn't know whether to cry or to laugh. " I've been dreaming of you, for weeks. Imagining your face, never knowing until now." She ran her hand down the baby's face and looked at her. " You even have a little ginger hair." She kissed the baby's forehead, holding her softly and cried. She looked back at her trying to memorize each detail, the ginger hair, the deep green eyes, the small freckles all over her button nose, and the way she felt in her arms. "Deep down I knew you were real, I was always so close." They both just watched each other. Sunlight streamed through the windows and she watched it dance across her baby's face. The soft smell of the ocean swept through the room, as the curtains swayed with the breeze.  
 _Juniper..  
_ She felt her heart sink, " No not yet, I just found her." The room dimmed as she heard her name.  
 _Juniper Please, wake up.  
_ " Don't do this to me, I'm begging you." She sobbed, holding onto her baby. She just wanted to stay here, after weeks of the same dream ending right before she got to see her face. The room started to fade, and she felt the weight in her arms disappear. Panicked she looked around the hospital room, the walls were shaking and the soft ocean smell faded into an iron one. " Please.." The room faded to black, and all Juniper felt was the pain in her body.

" Preston, common we don't have that much time look at her!" It was MacCready's voice that boomed around her.  
 _He's alive, Thank god.  
_ Juniper tried to move, but couldn't feel anything.

" Listen MacCready, we're doing the best we can. This wouldn't have happened if you didn't convince her she didn't need backup." Preston threatened back at MacCready.  
 _Am I dying?_

" You're just upset, she realized she didn't need you." MacCready's voice cut off and the room sounded muffled.

" Get them both out of here!" Another voice called out, through the static. Juniper tried to open her eyes, and felt a wave of pain go over her. She went to cry out in pain, but only whimpered.

" Someone get me some Med X and an IV!" The voice paused. " Hey, General just hold on a second, nobody needs saving right now but you, just stay still." Juniper felt her heart tighten, her babies needed saving. Tears streamed down her temples, as she was unable to move. She felt a small warmth spread through her wrist, through the rest of her body. Juniper involuntarily sighed with relief, and felt herself slowly slip back into the darkness.

It was impossible to tell, how long it had been. Slowly Juniper felt herself surfacing from the wave she was riding again. Pain coursed through her body again, but not as bad as the first time.  
" Hey there, kid just stay still." Mama murphy's voice, whispered softly to her. Juniper tried to open her eyes, the room was only lit with a small candle.  
" I wanted to tell you something, I know you all said to stay away from the chems but I knew I had to." Juniper even in pain cringed and listened to her. " I saw you, reuniting with your kids." Juniper paused, and Mama Murphy held onto her hand. " It's OK, I know." She felt herself contort and start to sob, through the pain remembering the loss of two children. " I haven't told anyone about what I saw, I knew you only talked about finding Shaun." Juniper squeezed her hand, and looked at Mama Murphy's outline in the dark room.

" Thank...you." Juniper managed to say. No one had watched over her like this, she'd always been watching over other people.

" I just wanted to tell you, so you know the fight isn't over. There're waiting for you Junnie, I don't know how your little girl made it, she must be a fighter just like her mom." Juniper Smiled through her tears, Shaun maybe at the institute but he has a sister.

 _It wasn't a dream. I'm going to get them both back._

" Rest now kid, you're going to need it to find them." Mama Murphy squeezed her hand one more time and pushed the blanket over her. She got up and kissed Juniper's forehead and Juniper watched her outline leave the room.

Slowly she drifted back onto that wave again, and felt her pain melt away.  
This time Juniper dreamed, she dreamed she was holding both of her children.


End file.
